Make a Name
by Sarah Torrez
Summary: Mari Mitchell is desperate to get out of her brother's shadow and make a name for herself. But will living in Hollywood be as easy as she thought?
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: This is my first story, and I'm kind of nervous about it. Be easy on me, please!**

Hi. I'm Mari Mitchell. The not-so-well known twin sister of Logan Mitchell, a member of Big Time Rush (in case you didn't know that 'cause you're living under a rock). I finally made it to Hollywood…as Big Time Rush's drummer. Still living in my brother's shadow. But hey, at least I'm in Hollywood, right?

I wish.

Anyway, my mom refused to let me go alone to the famous Palm Woods and instead sent our house keeper (our family's loaded) with me to the Palm Woods. I don't know why. Nina's only twenty-two, and she's not all that responsible herself, but my parents are gullible, so Nina came with me.

When we arrived, it was quiet. I had a feeling my brother and the rest of Big Time Rush weren't around. Nowhere they are is quiet.

Nina looked around. "Seems kind of boring, don't you think?" she asked.

"Oh, it's not like this all the time," a girl came up. She had long brown hair, and was in a prom dress. I realized her make-up was running and raised an eyebrow. "Big Time Rush isn't back yet from the studio."

She waited for us to say something. Nina smirked.

"I know, Logan texted me a while ago," I replied. Her eyes went wide.

"Who are you to Logan?" her voice was tight. Nina raised her eyebrow now.

"Looks like our little Logan found himself a girl," she commented, grinning.

"Don't get the wrong idea," I said quickly. "I'm his twin sister. Mari," I held out my hand and she shook it. "You must be Camille. Logan emailed me about you a lot."

"Now that I think about it, you do look like Logan," Camille nodded, looking significantly happier. I smiled. It was true. Logan and I were about the same height, and our eyes and hair were exactly the same color. We even used the same facial expressions. The only obvious difference was our skin tone. Logan took after our mom and was pale, while I took after our dad (who was Mexican) and had a darker skin color.

"Mari!" Carlos Garcia ran through the front door and crashed into me, wrapping me in a hug.

"Carlos!" I yelled, hugging him back. Carlos and I had been really close when he left. He keeps in touch more than Logan (isn't that sad?).

"Guys, it's Mari!" Carlos turned to the door. I followed his gaze and saw my brother, Kendall Knight, and James Diamond standing there. Logan hurried over and hugged me, too, though not nearly as forceful as Carlos had been.

"Logan, why didn't you tell me you had a twin sister?" Camille poked him. I knew she was playing, but Logan panicked.

"Uh," he looked toward the pool. "Hey, Mari, have you had a tour yet?"

"No," I shook my head. Logan opened his mouth to say more, but there was crash behind him and we turned to see what had happened.

I had to laugh at the scene. Kendall and James were on the floor, about five feet, groaning. There was a luggage cart not too far from them. A bellboy had a worried look on his face.

"Maybe they should wear helmets, too," I joked. Carlos laughed and nodded. His was strapped on his head.

"Are you two okay?" Logan asked as we walked over to them.

"Just fine," Kendall groaned. "Life is full of unicorns and daisies. Do I look okay?"

"He's okay," Logan and I said together. Kendall opened one eye and stared at us.

James suddenly sat up.

"My lucky comb! Where did it go?" he started looking around for it frantically. I rolled my eyes.

"James, it's in your back pocket," Logan sighed.

"Oh," James pulled it out and grinned sheepishly. "Right."

I laughed. No matter how further I had to go to make a name for myself, at least I wasn't stuck at home anymore. At least now I had a chance.

**Author's Note: Yeah, lame ending. But don't worry! I'm just getting started! I know this chapter was short and boring, but it's more introductory chapter. The action will start soon! MWUAHAHAHA!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: Wow. Two reviews, and I just posted today. Confidence has been restored! Here's the second chapter. Still a bit of an introductory, but it's definitely longer.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Big Time Rush, why would I need to write Fan fiction about it? I only own Mari.**

I got settled in pretty quick. I shared a room with Kendall's little sister, Katie. I didn't mind, even though she's only ten. For some reason, Logan thought I would rebel.

There were dozens of posters of Dak Zevon on the wall. It was kind of creepy to have so many eyes watching me as I crossed the room. I mean, sure, he's hot, but not like some other boys, like Taylor Lautner or Carlos-.

I froze. No. That thought had to leave my mind immediately. I was not here to hook up with my brother's best friend. I was here to get my career going. Not relationships.

"Mari?" Logan knocked on the door.

"Huh?" I looked up. I realized that though I'd been reaching into my suitcase several times, I hadn't pulled anything out yet. He raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything about it.

"Gustavo wants to meet you at the studio," Logan told me. I made a face. I knew all the stories about Gustavo. He didn't even know me yet. Kelly had met me when they visited Minnesota during the summer after their tour. She'd come over to my house and happened to find me in the middle of drumming. She'd testified to Gustavo that I was a great drummer (finally, something Logan doesn't do), and Gustavo somehow agreed to let me come out and try me out for a while.

I drove to everyone to the studio in my brand new Dodge Ram 1500. I know that sounds kind of weird for a sixteen-year-old girl to be driving, but I'm different. This was my dream truck. I could tell that the guys were impressed. That made me feel good.

Carlos tried to show me the way there, but we ended up in a rundown apartment complex, so I started listening to Logan. He couldn't find his way out of the area we'd gotten stuck in. James suddenly pointed out the way we'd come from and we made it to a recognizable area.

Finally, we made it to Rocque Records. It was different than I'd expected. Too pretty, I guess, for a guy like Gustavo. I don't really know.

Kelly walked in, with an old guy and a huge guy behind him. I assumed the huge guy was Gustavo. Logan had said that Gustavo had sat on him for a half an hour.

"Gustavo, Griffin, this is Logan's twin sister, Mari," Kelly introduced me. I remembered Carlos mentioning how Griffin was the CEO of the record company or something like that. So I had to stay on this guy's good side. That is something I'm not really good at. I don't like being fake. I like being myself.

"Kelly says you're a pretty good drummer," Gustavo folded his arms and stared me down. I think he was trying to intimidate me. I don't get intimidated easily. It has to do with growing up around hockey players and breaking a lot of rules at school.

"She is!" Logan insisted. Gustavo ignored him.

"Prove it," he said to me. He didn't look very happy, but I could see a little spark of interest in his face. I'm good at picking up emotions. Logical things like math and science are not my thing, but things that don't make logical sense are my specialty. Carlos is the same way, although he doesn't let anyone know about it.

I pulled my drum sticks out of my backpack. They were my special ones, the ones the boys had gotten together and bought right before they left. They were lucky.

"Show me where the drum set is," I said, attempting to sound tough. I swear, the tension in the room was going up. It was starting to get to me. The boys looked uncomfortable with it. I think they thought I was going to make Gustavo mad. Kelly gave me an encouraging smile, and Griffin looked excited for some reason.

Gustavo led the way to the studio, where a pretty cool drum set was set up. I sat down at the chair and quickly familiarized myself with everything.

"We're waiting!" Gustavo said in a singsong voice. I glared at him. He glared right back.

"Fine," I started to play the drum set part I'd made up for the last marching band show I'd done. I can't march at all, but I'm a decent player, so my teacher put me on the drum set. The drum set part wasn't easy, but I wasn't the main attraction, either, so I was used to playing under everyone.

"That's a little tame for a drummer," Griffin decided to throw in his two cents. I wished that he would take it back, but no such luck.

I remembered a song I'd written a few months ago. He wanted wild? He got it.

When I finished, the others looked surprised. Kendall, James, and Carlos had jumped back in shock. Logan was standing exactly where he'd started, shaking his head and laughing. Gustavo had a surprised look on his face.

"I told you she was good!" Kelly said to Gustavo. He cleared his throat uncomfortably, like he didn't know what to say.

"That wasn't horrible," he said uncertainly.

"What's your problem?" I asked him.

"Gustavo isn't very good at giving praise," Carlos supplied. Gustavo shrugged.

"Welcome to Big Time Rush!" he said. Griffin smiled and walked out without saying a word. I rolled my eyes and then let out a scream. Everyone jumped.

"Sorry, I'm excited!" I jumped up and down. I didn't want to hide the excitement. My brother gave me a high-five and Carlos decided that he was run into a wall. He ended up knocking himself out, but none of us were concerned. He did it all the time.

I was flying high the rest of the day. Nothing brought me down. I was finally beginning to make a name for myself. I was moving out of Logan's shadow and starting my own career and life. Hollywood was the best place in the world!

Man, if only I knew how wrong I was right then. Then maybe it wouldn't have happened.

**Author's Note: Cliffhanger...sort of. I would like to point out that I do have FCMD, but...all four boys are my favorite. So I'm evil to them. I don't know how evil I'll be in this story. We'll see...**


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: Holy moly, third chapter! This is further than I usually get in a fanfiction story! Yay!**

**Disclaimer: No, I don't own Big Time Rush. That would be totally awesome, but it's never gonna happen.**

**Warning: Drinking, hinting at sex...yup.**

The first few weeks in LA were awesome. I made friends, met a few celebrities, and even got to perform with Big Time Rush on a live TV show! People were starting to recognize me as Mari, not as Logan's twin sister.

Then everything went downhill. I guess I should start at the beginning.

_Flashback_

"What do you mean by that?" Kendall's face was slowly turning red.

"You never spend any time with me any more! You're always with her!" Jo's voice was angry, and I knew she was talking about me. They didn't know I was listening from around the corner.

"We've known each other since kindergarten!" Kendall said. "She's like a sister. I would never cheat on you!"

"That's not what the Jennifers said!" Jo replied.

"Since when do you listen to the Jennifers?"

"Since they started spending more time with me than my boyfriend!"

"Then maybe we should just stop seeing each other!"

"Maybe we should!" Jo glared at Kendall. "Have a nice life."

She stomped off toward the pool. I couldn't see Kendall's face, but I knew he had to be crushed. He slowly turned toward the elevators and spotted me. His face went through so many emotions it was impossible to tell what he really felt.

"You heard that?" he asked. I nodded. I stepped out from behind the wall and gave him a hug. I'd always felt comfortable giving all four boys hugs. I never thought it would cost them a relationship.

"I'm sorry," I told him. "I could go talk to her if you want."

"Nah," Kendall shrugged. "She freaked out when Jordin Sparks was here, too. She just doesn't trust me."

He still looked heartbroken, though. I felt horrible. I was the cause of the break-up. This was my fault.

Kendall started toward the elevator again and I followed him. When we got up to the room, he sat on the couch and stared off into space. I didn't know what to say.

"Let's go do something," he suddenly said.

"Like what?" I was caught off guard. He shrugged.

An idea popped into my head. It was probably stupid, but he didn't seem like he'd care.

"You could come with me to the party I'm going to later," I told him. His eyes lit up.

"Okay!" he nodded.

So, about three hours later, we were heading out to a party. I was getting a bad feeling. Kendall seemed a little too excited for a party that he barely new anything about.

The party seemed perfectly normal at first. There was a dance floor that people were on, sticking with their own gender and friends. There were chips, candy, and punch. I started to relax.

It didn't occur to me that someone would spike the punch. I had a few drinks, but I thought it tasted weird, so I stopped drinking it. Kendall didn't. Kendall continued drinking it. Kendall drank a lot of it. He got drunk.

It took me a while to figure this out. Mostly because I couldn't find him. When I finally did, he was hitting on a some blonde cheap-looking slut, who was getting ready to take him to a bedroom when I pulled him away. His drink spilled all over me and I choked on it and realized what it smelled like.

"Mari!" Kendall whined. "Why'd you do that?"

I stared at him. His eyes were bloodshot and he was on the verge of falling over.

"You're drunk!" I suddenly said.

"I am not! I would never drink!" his speech was slurring. I was right.

"Maybe not on purpose," I grabbed his cup away from him and threw in the nearest garbage can.

"There you are," the blonde from before came up from behind and put her arms around Kendall.

"Hi," Kendall hugged her. I could tell the blonde was about as drunk as Kendall.

I rolled my eyes and smelled my shirt. It smelled like alcohol. Mrs. Knight was going to kill me.

Sometime between the eye roll and the smelling of my shirt, Kendall and the girl disappeared. I new what that girl was thinking. And I knew that Kendall wasn't thinking. And I knew that Mrs. Knight was definitely going to kill me.

I spent another hour trying to find Kendall. When I finally did, h was throwing up in the bathroom.

"Oh," I rolled my eyes. "That is just great."

"Shut up," he moaned. I sighed and pulled out my phone. We were dead.

"Hello?" Mrs. Knight sounded worried. I looked around for a clock.

"Oh, crap," I muttered. It was way past midnight, which was our curfew. "Mrs. Knight, it's Mari."

"Oh, good," she sounded relieved. "Where's Kendall?"

"Right next to me," I said, looking down at him. He stood up shakily and stared at me like I had two heads.

"Where are you two?" she demanded, starting to sound a little angry.

"Uh, well," I took a deep breath. "See, that's why I called you. We went to a party. I told you that part. When we got to the party, it seemed normal. But somebody spiked the punch. I didn't have any, but Kendall is really drunk."

"Like how drunk?" she asked, sounding calmer than I thought she would have been.

I went to look at Kendall, only to find that he'd disappeared again.

"Oh, crap," I said. "Where'd he go?"

"You lost him?" Mrs. Knight yelled.

"Well, when he's drunk, he's apparently sneakier," I commented. "I'll find him. I'll call you back."

_Logan's POV_

It was two hours past midnight and my sister and Kendall still weren't back. I was not very calm. This is why I didn't want my sister here in LA. She's too irresponsible. She breaks the rules all the time. She can't be trusted here in LA, especially not with a heartbroken Kendall. He doesn't think for a few days after he breaks up with a girl. Especially not if she broke up with him. Kendall could be talked into anything. And Mari could be doing anything.

Finally, the phone rang. Everyone raced for it, but Mrs. Knight was the one who grabbed it.

"Hello?" she said. I couldn't tell who she was talking to. "Oh, good. Where's Kendall?"

Okay, it was Mari. That didn't say much.

"Where are you two?" she asked. She listened for a while, and then her face turned stony. I was wondering why when she said, "Like how drunk?"

"Drunk?" I exclaimed. Carlos' eyes were wide. That really didn't sound good.

"You lost him?" Mrs. Knight yelled. Wait. Mari lost Kendall? Was Kendall the one that was drunk? I mean, I know I said that Kendall could be talked into anything after a break-up, but I didn't think that included drinking. Does that mean Mari was drinking too? Couldn't I trust my sister to do anything?

Mrs. Knight hung up the phone and put her head in her hands, shaking her head.

"What happened?" Carlos, James, and I demanded.

"Well, you're going to find out anyway when they get home," Mrs. Knight sighed. "they went to a party where someone spiked the punch. Kendall's drunk."

"And Mari?" I prompted.

"She sounded totally sober, and she said she didn't have any," Mrs. Knight shrugged. She went to the kitchen to get some aspirin or something.

"How could my sister be so irresponsible?" I groaned to my friends. Carlos and James rolled their eyes. I'd given this speech before. I stopped myself. I would save it for Mari later.

We waited around for another hour. Finally, my cell phone started ringing. The Caller ID said it was Mari.

"Hello?" I answered it immediately.

"Logan?" Mari sounded like she'd been crying. "Kendall, he just collapsed. Logan he stopped breathing."

"Wait, what?" I said urgently. Kendall was hurt?

"When I found Kendall again, he'd been drinking again, and I was trying to get him to come to the car so we could leave, but he collapsed outside," Mari said shakily. "He was awake for a few minutes. He started throwing up blood. Then it looked like he had a seizure and then….," Mari's voice faded.

"Is he okay?" I asked her, standing up.

"I don't know, no one will tell me anything," Mari was obviously annoyed at that. "But Logan, Kendall stopped breathing. He wasn't breathing when the ambulance got here. I don't know if he's breathing now."

She sounded hysterical. I tried to reassure her, but her phone must have died or maybe she was just irritated, because the line went dead.

"What happened?" Mrs. Knight asked.

I looked at her. Something in my face must have told her something was wrong, because she immediately grabbed her car keys.

"Where do we go?" she asked.

"The hospital," I answered, my voice trembling. Carlos, James, and Katie looked shocked, but Mrs. Knight just nodded, tight-lipped, and took us out to the car.

**Author's Note: Sorry about that. Again, I like to torture my characters. This is tame for me, though...I should put some of my meaner stories on here.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: I'm enjoying this. It's the weekend, so I doubt I'll be updating this much later. Tomorrow I don't have school because the quarter ended on Friday, so I'll probably update a few more times tomorrow. I'm an actual writer and have been since I was seven, and I'm pretty good at rolling the chapters right out. Plus I like this story. By the way, thanks for the reviews! They make me all happy inside!**

**Disclaimer: If you're still thinking I own Big time Rush, then you need to be slapped or something...**

_Carlos' POV_

I was confused. Mrs. Knight was taking us to the hospital. Logan looked really upset. Mari and Kendall still weren't home. Kendall was drunk. What was going on? I hate not knowing things.

Finally, we got to the hospital. I saw Mari's truck in the parking lot. That meant she had driven her. Which meant it wasn't her that was hurt. Which meant it was Kendall.

We hurried inside. Mari sitting in the waiting room, staring at the ceiling. Her eyes were red. She'd been crying.

That hit me hard. Mari _never_ cries. She didn't even cry when I knocked her off her skateboard in fourth grade and she broke her ankle. Something really bad must have happened.

"Mari, what happened?" Mrs. Knight demanded. Mari jumped and looked at us.

"Oh, hi," she said in a small voice.

"Why do you smell like alcohol?" Logan demanded. He was not happy with her.

"Kendall dumped half of his drink on me," she explained, glaring at him. "I didn't drink. The punch tasted weird, like it was missing sugar or something. Everyone else seemed to be enjoying it, so I thought it was just me."

"Logan, shut up," James said when Logan opened his mouth. He stared at James, surprised.

"What happened?" I repeated Mrs. Knight's question.

"You didn't tell them?" Mari asked Logan, her eyes wide. Logan shook his head and looked away, biting his lip.

Mari sighed. "When I found Kendall again, he was drinking more of the punch. I tried to get him to the car, he collapsed, started throwing up blood, had a seizure, and wasn't breathing when the ambulance arrived. Other than that, I don't have a clue."

I winced. Mari was so blunt about it. It was like she didn't care. I saw the look in her eyes, though. She was really upset. I think she might have been blaming herself.

We started going crazy waiting for news. Logan and Mari whispered to each other, and at one point, Mari got up and went outside. Her eyes had been bright with tears. I followed her, wondering what she was so upset again.

She was sitting on a bench, hugging her knees to her chest. Her head was down on her knees, and I could tell she was crying.

"What's wrong?" I asked as I sat down next to her. She shook her head.

"Come on, you can tell me," I poked her side. She flinched. Then she raised her head and glared at me.

"I know you want to tell me," I went to poke her side again, but she used her super-fast soccer goalie reflexes to grab my hand.

"Shut up," she said, her voice dangerously low. She was squeezing my hand a little too hard. I winced, and she let go immediately.

"Sorry!" her eyes went wide. I grinned and she relaxed a bit.

"Is Logan blaming you for this?" I asked her. Her face went from calm-ish to really upset. Mari looked like she couldn't decided between hitting me and answering me. Finally, she nodded.

"He's talking like Kendall getting drunk and ending up in the hospital was my fault," she sighed. "He said that I'm too irresponsible, and that he wished Mom and Dad had made me stay in Minnesota."

Ouch. That had to hurt. Logan was being an idiot. I knew that in a few days, he would really regret saying that. But that wouldn't matter. The damage had been done. Mari was a forgiving person. She was as horrible at horrible at holding grudges as I was. So, she was probably going to forgive him by tomorrow. But it would leave its mark on their relationship.

I gave her a one-armed hug. I felt pretty comfortable hugging Mari. She was like a sister to me. She leaned into the hug and we sat like that for a while.

Suddenly, James ran out the door and to us.

"The doctor's talking about Kendall!" he told us. We stood up and followed him.

"-Allergic to alcohol," we heard as we walked in. "He had quite a bit of alcohol in him. More than the legal amount."

"Not on purpose," I heard Mari mumble.

"My son went to a party where someone spiked the punch," Mrs. Knight explained. "He's not drunk on purpose."

The doctor nodded, a knowing look on her face.

"Probably the same party my son just went to break up," she said. "My son's a police officer."

"I know, I called the police," Mari said. We looked at her, surprised.

"Good," the doctor nodded. "My name's Dr. Stevens, by the way. Anyway, we pumped his stomach, but he's still in a coma. He might be for a while. It was a severe allergic reaction. But he should be okay after a few days."

"Thank you," Mrs. Knight said.

"There's another thing," Dr. Stevens hesitated, then pulled Mrs. Knight away.

"Well, that can't be good," James said.

"Oh, crap," Mari paled. I didn't look at her. I have a talent for reading lips, and I was attempting to read Dr. Stevens' lips.

I froze.

"What?" James and Katie said together.

"She just said something about Kendall having sex," I said.

"Oh, crap," Mari put her head in her hands.

"What?" Logan looked at her.

"One of the several times he got away from me, he was with a blonde," she said into her hands, her voice slightly muffled. "Oh, my God."

"How long was he away from you?" James asked slowly.

"About an hour," Mari winced.

"How could you just lose him!" Logan freaked out. He looked like he wanted to hit her or something. I knew he wouldn't, but I really wanted to step between her and Logan.

"I'm sorry if I was trying to figure out a way to get him home when he snuck away!" I could tell Mari was done with Logan. "It's not my fault he got drunk! It's not my fault he was an idiot!"

"Why weren't you more responsible?" Logan yelled.

Okay, that was enough for me. I got in between them.

"All right, calm down," I said. "Logan, it's not Mari's fault. What was she supposed to do? And Mari, don't go blaming Kendall for this, either. He didn't know what he was doing."

Logan looked away, refusing to meet my eyes. Mari crossed her arms and nodded, but she still looked angry. James threw me a shaky smile and decided to pull Logan away from us. Katie rolled her eyes and sat down next to the window.

After a few minutes, Mrs. Knight came back over to us. She looked shocked, but she shook it off. I'm sure she could feel the tension in the room, and there was no way she and the doctor had missed the fight, but she didn't say anything about it.

"The doctor says we can go see Kendall," she announced, getting everyone's attention. We hurried after her to room 115. Kendall was the only one in the room, even though there were two beds.

Kendall looked terrible. He was pale and sweaty. He had an oxygen mask on and was hooked up to a heart monitor machine.

"I thought the doctor said he was going to okay," James said, his voice a few octaves higher than it should have been.

"He is going to be okay," Logan sighed.

"Then why is he hooked up to those machines?"

"They're just being careful."

James looked kind of sad. I was surprised at how Kendall looked. He looked like he had a really bad flu or something, not recovering from an allergic reaction.

Speaking of which…

"Who the heck is allergic to alcohol?" I wondered out loud.

"The ultimate excuse not to drink," Mari grinned slightly. "Instead of saying 'no,' he can say, 'I'm allergic.'"

Katie started giggling. I could tell that Logan wanted to laugh, but was still too angry.

We sat there for a while. It was quiet, and the angry glares Logan and Mari kept shooting at each other were getting on my nerves. I closed my eyes to block them out and instead fell asleep.

**Author's Note: Kind of lame, I know...I didn't like this chapter as much as I liked the other ones. But, the allergic to alcohol thing is pretty interesting in my opnion. It really is the ultimate excuse not to drink. Ha, ha.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: For some reason this chapter took me longer than usual to write. It didn't take forever, but it wasn't easy.**

**Disclaimer: You know, these are just here to make it so producers and directors can shove it in our faces that we don't own what they do.**

_Mari's POV_

A few days passed. I was unbelievably mad at Logan. I'm not that good at holding grudges, but Logan was blaming me for what happened and hadn't apologized. I guess he was thinking I would give up and apologize to him. Not happening. Not this time.

We spent most of our time at the hospital. Somehow the media had figured out about Kendall. At least, they knew he was in the hospital, they just didn't know why. Gustavo had sent Freight Train to guard him. The boys, Katie, and I had a hard time getting in and out of the hospital without being mobbed. It was getting ridiculous.

One day, Carlos and I went to the grocery store to buy snacks that weren't from the hospital cafeteria or the vending machines. Kendall was still out. The doctor was predicting him to wake up in the next day or two.

We went to the check-out line. That was when I noticed the huge picture of Kendall on the front of a magazine.

"Oh, no," I grabbed the magazine. Carlos dropped the bag he was holding and hurried to look at the magazine with me. The headline on the front said: "**Is boy band member Kendall Knight having a little too much fun?**"

I flipped to the page quickly. The blonde that Kendall had been with was pictured there. She'd told the media that Kendall had had a one-night stand with her and ran away afterwards.

"Oh, crap," Carlos said.

"Gustavo is going to kill someone," I groaned. "Kendall is going to kill someone. Oh, man. This is going to suck."

"Buy it," Carlos took it from me and threw it on the pile of stuff. We hurried back to the hospital room, where we found everyone gathered around Kendall's bed.

"What's up?" I asked. Katie moved to the side and I saw that Kendall had his eyes open and was staring at everyone.

"Oh, crap," Carlos muttered in my ear. I elbowed him in the stomach.

"What's up with you two?" James asked. I glanced at Carlos, who blinked and didn't look at me.

"Well, this is kind of a bad time, but," I sighed and pulled out the magazine. I tossed it to Mrs. Knight. She stared at in horror. She didn't get a chance to open it before James stole it from her.

"Oh, Gustavo is going to kill you," he told Kendall. The blond boy looked completely confused.

"Give him a break, he just woke up!" Logan told James. James shoved the magazine in Logan's face. He jumped back and blinked.

"Oh," was all he said. Everyone looked at me.

"What?" I demanded.

"You're the most persuasive!" Carlos told me.

"I am not!" I replied. I didn't know why I found that offensive. Maybe it was because why they were telling me this.

Kendall stared at me, wide-eyed, trying to figure out what was going on.

"Show him the magazine already," I told James. He showed it to Kendall, who turned even paler.

Gustavo charged into the room right then.

"No!" Carlos and I yelled at him immediately and turned him around. How we got him out of the room on our own, I'll never know.

"You're helping me with this," I told Carlos. He hesitated, then looked at me, then at Kendall, and then nodded.

"What is wrong with you dogs?" Gustavo demanded.

"Nothing!" Carlos yelled back. I smacked them both on the back of the head.

"Not near Kendall," I whispered. "He's stressed enough. Go that way. We can talk about it anywhere else. Just not here. Or anywhere public, really."

We went to Rocque Records.

"How did this happen?" Gustavo demanded.

"He was drunk," I admitted. "But not on purpose. Someone spiked the drinks at the party we were at. He might not even remember what happened."

Gustavo looked even angrier.

"Fix it!" he managed. He looked like he might blow up if he said anything else.

Kelly stayed while he walked away.

"How do we fix this?" Carlos asked Kelly.

"I don't know!" Kelly shrugged. "I've never had this problem. The members of Gustavo's other boy bands were either old enough or already labeled as players."

"The doctor!" I suddenly remembered. "Kendall went to the hospital right afterwards! Can doctors tell that kind of thing?"

"I don't know, ask Logan," Carlos said. I glared at him. "Right, no talking about Logan. Got it."

Kelly raised an eyebrow, clearly confused, but I was already moving on.

"What if we play up Kendall's allergic reaction or something?" I suggested.

"The problem with that being Kendall's a horrible liar," Carlos pointed out.

"Okay, then, you come up with a plan," I sighed.

"Why don't you just tell them Kendall got accidentally drunk and no idea what he was doing?" Carlos suggested.

"Oh," I blinked. "Telling the truth. Good point."

"Thank you," Carlos grinned.

"But wait," Kelly said. "What about the fact that he went to party?"

I sighed.

"Blame that on me," I groaned. "It was my fault, after all. I'll take the blame. But Kendall's gonna owe me big time. This could ruin my reputation."

"What reputation?" Carlos teased me. I elbowed him again.

"Okay, let's go do some damage control," Kelly said, pulling us after her.

**Author's Note: I don't really like this chapter as much as the others. I'm not sure why. I think I've got writer's block.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: So, I was sitting on my bed looking through my email, and I realized that this story is a lot more popular than I thought it was. Thank you for reading, even if you don't review! The fact that some of you added me as a favorite author makes me happy enough!**

**Oh, and UnderworldChick, thanks for the suggestion! It helped me write this chapter, and thanks for reviewing! Shout-out to anyone who reads this. Even if you don't like it. 'Cause I'm in a good mood.**

**Disclamier: *sigh* No, I don't own Big Time Rush. I think I'd be satisified with just meeting them.**

_Logan's POV_

I don't know why everyone thought Mari could fix everything. It's not like this isn't her fault. How did Mari even think going to party in LA was a good idea? Okay, there are a few good ones. But ones thrown by sixteen year olds without adult supervision? That screams illegal things to me.

Anyway, poor Kendall was still staring at the magazine. I can't imagine what he must be feeling right now. He looked so confused, but I knew that it was more than that.

"You okay?" James asked him when it was just me and him with Kendall.

"I don't remember anything," he said. It was the first time he'd spoken since he'd woken up. "The last thing I remember is Jo breaking up with me. Then my memory's blank."

"Not Mari's fault," James said immediately as I opened my mouth. I glared at him.

"I wasn't going to say that," I said. "I was going to say that that really sucks. That okay with you?"

James looked apologetic. "Sorry," he said.

Kendall looked at us both. "All right, what are you blaming Mari for?" he sighed.

"He thinks that all of this is Mari's fault for some reason," James shrugged. I looked away. They made me sound like the bad guy.

"Huh," Kendall said. "Funny. I was going to tell Mari it was my fault and that I was sorry we got into this mess."

"But you're the one in the mess, not her," I pointed out, looking back at him.

"True," Kendall nodded. "But Mari's going to get dragged into it somehow. Maybe even Carlos, since he went with her."

"I doubt Mari will let him get involved," I said, surprising myself as well as the other two. It was the first good thing I'd said about my twin since this whole thing had started.

We sat there for a while, in silence. I was thinking about Mari, and why she had just gone along with Kelly's plan in the first place. I still didn't understand it. Mari always told James the downside to being famous when he'd talked about it. She'd always have something negative to tell him. Honestly, it was kind of funny. But that's not the point. She once said she never wanted to be famous. In fact, she didn't want to be a drummer. She wanted to be a band teacher. So coming out to Hollywood was the most confusing thing Mari had ever done.

Crazily enough, Mari and Carlos didn't come back to the hospital that night. It was kind of irritating. I guess I'm way over protective of Mari, and I thought that she and Carlos were spending way too much time together. But another thing about Mari was that she wasn't really interested in dating. As far as I knew, she'd had a total of two crushes, and they were both celebrity crushes, so they didn't really count.

When I woke up the next morning, I shook my head to clear it. It was like there was a buzzing sound that wouldn't go away. That was when I noticed my cell phone on the floor, vibrating. I grabbed it.

"Hello?" I answered it quietly.

"Logan, it's Carlos," he said. "Sorry about not coming back, but I don't think any of you should leave either. There's a huge crowd of paparazzi there. Mari and I couldn't even get through the crowd. We spent the night at Rocque Records."

"Did you come up with any ideas to fix it?" I got up and left the room.

"Yeah," Carlos sounded kind of tense. "Look, don't freak, but Mari's taking the blame for it. She's going to tell the media that she took Kendall to the party and didn't try to leave in time."

I groaned. Did Mari realize that doing that might affect me? People would think of me as Logan Mitchell, the singer with the irresponsible sister.

I froze. What? That wasn't me?

"Oh, crap," I said.

"What?" I jumped. I hadn't realized I'd said into the phone. Carlos sounded like he was bouncing up and down.

"I'm turning into James."

_Kendall's POV_

I woke up suddenly, like someone had screamed in my ear or something. I don't know why. I looked around the room. Logan was just outside the door. He was facing away from me, but I could tell that he was on the phone. Katie was asleep with her head on the table next to my bed and her hand near me. James was asleep with his face down on the bed, leaning over. I vaguely wondered what position Logan had been in when he woke up.

Logan walked back in, shaking his head.

"What's up?" I asked him.

"I'm an idiot," he replied in a tone that made it clear that he did not want to talk about it.

Suddenly, James gasped and sat up so suddenly he tipped his chair backwards and both he and the chair crashed the ground. Katie jumped and opened her eyes.

"Uh, are you okay?" Logan asked, obviously trying not to laugh. I refused to look at him. I knew that if I did, I would crack up. Instead, I focused on James' shoe.

"Ow," James groaned. "That hurt."

"Did Mari and Carlos ever come back?" I asked as Logan helped James up. Logan shook his head.

"Carlos called and said there's such a huge crowd of paparazzi that they can't get in," Logan explained. "They crashed at Rocque Records. They also said that they have a plan."

"Why do you not sound happy about that?" James wanted to know.

"Because I'm an idiot," he groaned again, sitting down and putting his head in his hands. James raised an eyebrow and threw me a questioning look. I held my hands up in surrender.

"I know just as much as you do," I told him. "So what's their plan?"

"Mari is going to take the blame for the party," Logan told us.

"How does that make you an idiot?" Katie was smirking for some reason.

"Why is she taking the blame?" I added.

"It makes me an idiot because of what I thought afterward, and I don't know why," Logan sighed. "My first thought after Carlos told me that was that Mari was going to bring me down, too. That's why I'm an idiot."

"Okay," I leaned back on the pillows and stared at the ceiling.

"Interesting," James yawned.

"I'm getting a drink from the vending machine," Katie told me. I nodded.

"That's all you have to say?" Logan seemed shocked for some reason.

"Yeah," James and I nodded together.

"Look, you feel bad about it, so you obviously didn't actually mean it," I said. That was my opinion.

Logan opened his mouth, then closed it. I had a feeling he had a lot to think about.

**Author's Note: I don't like writing Logan as a butthead...**


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note: Okay, so I'm sick today, so I'm working on this story. Yay! This chapter is more a product of me being bored and sudden inspiration. Oh, there's a poll on my profile (at least, I think it's there). "Should Mari end up with Carlos?" is the question. If you say she should end up with another character, message me who you think she should end up with. OCs may or may not be accepted.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Big Time Rush, I would be on it.**

_Carlos' POV_

We were still unable to get into the hospital. Actually, we were unable to get within a three block radius, or the paparazzi would see us. It was starting to get a little out of hand.

"Call the police already!" Camille suggested. We'd gone back to the Palm Woods for a while. We were talking with her and Stephanie. Jo had completely ignored us, but she looked really upset.

"Good idea," Mari said sarcastically.

"We tried!" I said. "We got a busy signal."

"How do you get a busy signal from the police?" Stephanie wondered.

"Hey, they're interested in a story, right?" Camille suddenly said.

"Yeah," Mari glanced at me. I shrugged.

"So, why don't you tell them it was your fault while they're outside the hospital?" Camille said.

"That's not a bad idea," Stephanie nodded.

"Logan is going to kill me," Mari muttered. I rolled my eyes.

We said good-bye to Stephanie and Camille and headed toward the hospital.

"Speaking of Logan killing me, how did he react to the plan?" Mari asked, pulling out of the Palm Woods parking lot.

"He said he was turning into James," I said. I still didn't understand it.

"What the heck is that supposed to mean?" Mari wondered.

"I don't know," I shrugged. "Can we get something to eat?"

Mari sighed and rolled her eyes, but she pulled into a McDonalds drive-thru.

"Slow down, Carlos, you're getting ketchup all over your face," Mari laughed and handed me a napkin. We were now parked near the hospital and waiting for me to finish eating.

I finished and we headed toward the hospital. The paparazzi noticed us immediately and tried to swarm us, but Freight Train was still there and made them back up.

"Why didn't we think about that earlier?" Mari whispered in my ear. I shrugged.

When we made it to the front of the crowd, Mari stopped and turned around. I turned with her. I wasn't going to make her do this by herself.

"Mari!" about eight different reporters yelled out questions for her. About the same amount were yelling questions for me. I was getting a headache from it all.

"Shut up!" Mari yelled. The crowd went down to a buzzing level. At least they weren't yelling out questions anymore.

"For all of you people wondering how Kendall Knight had sex with a girl, it's my fault!" she yelled to the crowd. "I took him to the party. Somebody spiked the drinks. He got drunk. I didn't try to leave in time. It's my fault, not his. And I would like to point out that that girl was drunk too, so she better shut her mouth about this!"

Mari turned and walked straight into the hospital. I followed. She looked really ticked off.

"You okay?" I asked her. She shrugged.

"I'll bet that girl doesn't even remember meeting Kendall," she looked at me. "I'll bet one of her sober friends saw her go into a bedroom. There's a good chance that nothing happened."

"Let's just hope the paparazzi buy your story and move on," I replied. She nodded and smiled.

"I've always wanted to yell at paparazzi," she giggled. I laughed, too.

We walked into Kendall's room, where everyone stared at us for a couple of seconds.

"Hi!" I said, waving.

"What's up?" Mari asked.

"We heard you," James gestured to the window, which was open.

"Ah," Mari nodded. "I yelled that loud? Dang."

"It's only the third floor," Logan mumbled. He was refusing to meet Mari's eyes. Actually, he was refusing to meet my eyes, too. Or anyone's, really.

Mari shrugged. We were quiet for a while. It was awkward, and I couldn't figure out why.

"Just so you know," Mari finally spoke. "The three of you look like crap."

I figured she was referring to Kendall, James, and Logan. They did look kind of bad. James' hair was all over the place. As soon as he found out, he'd freak out. Logan's eyes were blood shot. Kendall looked like he was sick.

"What does that mean?" James' hands flew to his hair. He ran into Kendall's bathroom. "Oh, man! I do!"

Mari laughed.

"Hey, I have an excuse!" Kendall defended himself. Mari rolled her eyes.

"Okay, fine," she said. "But Logan looks like he hasn't slept in a few days."

"I've slept," he looked at the ground.

"All right, what's up?" Mari sighed. "You sound like you're have a self-pity party."

"I'm an idiot," he said. Then he stood up and left the room.

"That's all he pretty much said to us, too," James called from the bathroom.

"Well, actually," Kendall hesitated. "He said that he was an idiot because when Carlos told him the plan, he thought Mari was going to bring him down, too."

Mari rolled her eyes.

"Of course he would think that," she sighed. "That he's an idiot. Not the other part. He's just not happy with me is all."

"Oh!" I suddenly figured something out. "What he said to me makes so much sense now!"

"What did he say to you?" Kendall asked. Mari shook her head.

"Uh," I panicked. "I don't know."

Mari smacked her forehead. Kendall raised an eyebrow.

"You don't know?" he glanced at Katie, who had just walked around.

"It's offensive," Mari said quickly.

"To who?" James asked.

"To human beings around the world," she said with a completely straight face. I couldn't figure out how she was doing that.

"So he said he was an idiot?" Kendall asked.

"Pretty much," Mari was now fighting back a smile and deliberately not looking at me. I didn't blame her. I was having a harder time than she was. I decided that I was going to leave the room. I turned around and took a step only to walk straight into Mrs. Knight.

"Whoa!" I jumped back, right into Mari. She started laughing really hard. Kendall and James joined in, and I gave in, too. Mrs. Knight stared at us like we were crazy.

"Hi!" I managed.

"Where's Logan?" she asked.

"He went that way," Mari pointed out the door. "Other than that, we don't know."

"Okay," she turned toward her daughter, who was smirking.

Logan walked in just then. Mari cleared her throat and went over to the window. I turned toward the wall. I'm not sure what Kendall and James did.

"Hi," he said, sounding confused.

"They told us what you said to Carlos on the phone," Kendall explained. I panicked. Mari looked at me, her eyes wide.

"Oh," he nodded. "You're not mad at me?"

"Why would we be mad at you?" James asked slowly. I started walking toward the door very slowly. Mari joined me.

"I said that I was turning into you," Logan seemed confused.

"Gotta go!" I yelled and Mari and I ran out the door. We could hear James chasing after us. We went outside, not expecting to see all the paparazzi still there.

"Hola!" I yelled. Mari and I started to go through the crowd. We didn't hear James.

Suddenly, something smashed into my face. I fell backward into Mari, feeling dizzy. I heard her trying to say something to me, but I couldn't respond.

**Author's Note: What did I do to Carlos? Dun dun dunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note: Okay, I promise this will all make more sense in a few chapters, why I'm doing this, anyway. So if it doesn't right now, bear with me. And I decided that Make a Name is now a series. This is the first one. I'm pretty sure the second one will be titled 'Going Haywire.' I might change the name.**

**Disclaimer: If the message wasn't clear in the other chapters, I honestly don't own Big Time Rush.**

_Mari's POV_

I don't know why Carlos and I thought going through the paparazzi was a good idea. That just goes to show that we really don't think.

Anyway, about halfway through the crowd, I saw a guy facing the wrong way, away from the hospital. He was talking to the guy behind him. Just as Carlos went to pass him, his arm and camera came flying back and hit Carlos straight in the face. He fell backward onto me. I lowered him to the ground so I could see what was wrong.

The paparazzi around me were quiet, not even taking any pictures. They were staring at Carlos. They guy who'd hit him kneeled down.

"Oh, crap," he said.

"Carlos?" I asked. I could see that his eyes were open, and he seemed dazed. He didn't answer me.

The camera had left a mark on his forehead, and his nose was bleeding now. I thought it looked broken.

"Yo, Freight Train!" I stood up and waved him over. He came and picked Carlos up. I followed him inside.

A soon as we were inside, we ran into James.

"Whoa," he stared at Carlos. "What happened?"

"A guy hit him in the face with a camera," I explained. James raised an eyebrow.

_Kendall's POV_

James, Mari, and Carlos were gone for a while. After about twenty minutes, Logan and I started to get worried. Katie went hunting for them. She came back after a while.

"Where are they?" I asked.

"Well, Mari and James are sitting in the waiting room," Katie said. "Mari's playing Carlos' Nintendo DS. James is staring at the ceiling. I can't find Carlos."

"You don't think something happened to him, do you?" Logan looked at me, worried.

"Mari and James don't look very worried," Katie told us. Just then, Mari and James came in. Mari was yawning.

"Where's Carlos?" I asked.

Mari and James looked at each other.

"Being checked out," James shrugged.

"What happened?" Logan asked.

"He got hit in the face by some paparazzi guy," Mari explained. "I'm pretty sure his nose is broken. And he might have a concussion."

Logan winced.

"Look!" Katie suddenly pointed at the TV, which had been muted. There was a picture of Big Time Rush on it. I quickly unmuted it.

"…camera caught Carlos Garcia and Mari Mitchell together, eating in a truck."

Mari paled as it showed video of them in her truck. They were laughing.

"Crap," she whispered.

"Are they together? Stick around to find out."

I muted it again.

"Oh, great," Mari groaned. "You know, our parents are going to kill me," she told Logan.

"They would have done it a long time ago," he pointed out. Mari grinned.

"True," she admitted. James looked relieved. I knew Mari and Logan had been fighting, but they seemed to be getting along okay right now.

Mari's phone started playing 'Stuck.'

"That's your ring tone?" I asked, surprised.

"For Carlos," she nodded. "He requested it. Speaking of which, I need to find what songs you guys want. Hello?" she listened, then sighed and rolled her eyes. "No one's going to laugh. All right, fine, where are you? The doctor's letting you go already? That's what I thought. Fine, I'll come get you."

She rolled her eyes again as she hung up.

"Carlos thinks we're going to laugh at him," she said. "And he's stuck here overnight for observation. He got a concussion."

She came back twenty-five minutes later with no Carlos.

"The doctor freaked out on me when I tried to take him here," she explained. "He got a broken nose. And he's complaining like crazy. And he looks like crap now, too."

I groaned. That meant I couldn't see Carlos until tomorrow. I wasn't allowed out of bed yet. I didn't know why. I felt fine. Not really. Actually, I felt like I was going to throw up. But I had a feeling everyone would freak if I said that.

"And Carlos is really wanting to kill some paparazzi right now," Mari said.

"I don't blame him," Logan said. "Hit in the face, followed by them, they're attacking him and us. I wouldn't mind hitting one of them. Too bad it's against the law."

Mari snorted. Then she started laughing.

"What?" Logan looked confused.

"That's what Carlos said," she giggled. I laughed, too.

We talked about a bunch of different things for a while. Then, suddenly, I felt drained and closed my eyes. I don't remember falling asleep, but I must have.

_James' POV_

Kendall fell asleep in the middle of our debate between hockey and soccer. Logan, Kendall, and I were on the side of hockey. Mari and Katie for some reason were on the side of soccer. I didn't think Katie liked soccer. Mrs. Knight was completely ignoring us.

"Guess he's tired," Logan said.

"Apparently," Mari nodded. "So am I. Sleeping sounds like a good idea."

"Wait," I said. "Does anyone else think he's sick?"

"Duh," Mari said. "He's just being his stubborn self and refusing to complain. Unlike Carlos. He keeps texting me 'My head hurts' or something like that."

Logan agreed with Mari.

"I would have worded it a little differently," he said. Mari rolled her eyes, but didn't seem angry. I was relieved. Life was much easier when they were getting along.

"So, I have a question," Katie said. We turned to her. "How are you going to get rid of the paparazzi outside? Kendall's not going to be in here forever, and we can't stay here forever."

"Mari and Carlos already proved we can get in and out," I said.

"We just have to duck," Mari joked. We rolled our eyes. "Sorry. Maybe something else will come up. Paris Hilton might get arrested again or something. Wait. Wasn't she in jail already?"

We shrugged.

"Another problem," Katie said. "There's not chocolate in this hospital, and I'm craving it."

"Same here," Mari nodded. I laughed.

"Mari, your truck is parked near here, right?" I asked her.

"Yup," she nodded.

"Why don't we go get some?" I suggested.

"Okay, but Katie is coming with us," Mari pointed at her. "Because if we're alone, the paparazzi's gonna think we're together, too."

"While you're there, pick up some books or something to read," Logan suggested.

"And some lotion for me," Mrs. Knight said. I was surprised she wasn't protesting.

"And don't forget to get some chocolate for Carlos," Logan grinned. "And something for Kendall."

"Got it!" Mari saluted him. He laughed.

Mari started marching out to her truck. Once she made it to the paparazzi crowd, she waved and gave them a sarcastic smile. Katie followed her and then I came out. We really didn't want them to think that we were together.

"You know, last time I went to the store, I learned some bad news," Mari sighed as she drove to the store. I didn't have a clue what to say, so I turned the radio up and we sang along until we got to the store.

Once we got inside, Mari and I realized that we didn't know what kind of lotion Mrs. Knight wanted.

"I'll get it," Katie said. "I'll meet you by the chocolate, okay?"

"Got it!" I said.

"Be careful," Mari warned her. She nodded and ran off toward the lotion. Mari and I went to the candy aisle.

"Look," I pointed to the dark chocolate. "It's your favorite kind of chocolate."

"Shut up," Mari playfully shoved me. A flash from a camera suddenly went off, and Mari and I froze. We looked toward the end of the aisle, where a man holding a camera stared at us.

"Oh, crap," we said together.

**Author's Note: All of my chapters are so long. It's so weird. Usually my chapters are short. I guess I really like this story. Don't forget about my poll!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note: Okay, this chapter is short. Well, shorter than the other ones, anyway. It's kind of showing what happens so I can get to the good part. I hope. Just kidding!**

**Disclaimer: You know, we shouldn't have to tell everyone we don't own Big Time Rush every story. Couldn't we just put it on our profile or something?**

_Mari's POV_

"Oh, crap," we said together. James and I looked at each other for a split second, then took off after the man. I didn't have a clue what we were going to do, but we chased after the man. He was faster than us, and apparently sneakier, because when we got outside, he was nowhere to be seen.

"Crap," I sat down on the bench, breathing hard. We'd ran really fast.

"Sorry," James panted.

"It's okay," I told him. After all, he'd tried, right? It wasn't his fault.

We went back inside and back to the chocolate aisle, where Katie was standing, looking confused. Her face cleared when she saw us walking toward her.

"Why are you all out of breath?" she asked us.

"Some paparazzi guy got our picture," James groaned.

"Well, I wanted a reputation, and I got one," I sighed. "People are going to think I'm playing with you, Carlos, and Kendall."

"Why Kendall?" James asked as he grabbed some chocolate off of the shelf.

"I went to the party with him," I explained. I'd thought about this earlier. Kendall had just broken up with his girlfriend, and I'd taken him out. "Your fans are going to hate me."

"Oh," James was quiet.

"I have an idea," Katie said. "What if you got with someone else? Someone not from Big Time Rush. Didn't you have a boyfriend in Minnesota?"

"Nope," I shook my head. "I don't really like the thought of dating. Especially with the luck the guys' have had."

"Good point," James sighed.

"This is a depressing subject, let's get on another one," I suggested.

"Okay," James thought for a minute. "If you could be with one of us, which one would it be?"

"That's not really a new subject," I told him, not really wanting to answer that.

"Just answer the question!" James said.

"I've never thought about it," I lied. I had thought about it. In fact, I'd had a crush on each of them for a while. It had faded. Mostly, anyway. For some reason, the idea of dating Carlos seemed appealing to me. But I wasn't going to admit that. Not right now, anyway.

James put the chocolate and lotion down on the counter.

"We forgot something for Logan to read," Katie said.

"I'll go look," I sighed.

When we were finally done and in the truck, we hurried back to the hospital. I'd had enough of the paparazzi, and if any of these people said anything to me, I was probably going to lose it on them.

Luckily, none of them said anything. They were distracted by some star I didn't recognize across the street. It was a woman, and she was obviously drunk, but I didn't really care anymore.

When we got back to Kendall's room, he was still asleep. Logan gladly took the book I'd gotten for him and started reading it. Mrs. Knight took the lotion and put some of it on.

"I'll take this to Carlos," I said and stood up. I was still thinking about James' earlier question. I refuse to admit I like Carlos. That would be too weird and potentially harm Logan and Carlos' friendship. Not to mention me and Logan. I'd just have to move on.

When I reached Carlos' room, it was dark. He was asleep in his bed. I didn't want to wake him, so I took the chocolate back to Kendall's room.

"Carlos is asleep, too," I told them.

"Really?" James looked surprised. I didn't blame him. I mean, it was only seven o'clock. Carlos doesn't like to go to bed until ten o'clock and to sleep until eleven.

"It's been a long couple of days," I shrugged. James agreed, but he looked kind of worried.

_Logan's POV_

Carlos? Asleep at seven? Weird. He must have been really tired.

I looked at Mari. She looked really stressed out and kind of upset.

"What's up?" I asked her. She looked at me in surprise.

"Oh, just more paparazzi spreading rumors and lies about me," she sighed. "They got a picture of me and James without Katie. I'm in trouble. Everyone's going to think I'm playing with Kendall, Carlos, and James."

I nodded thoughtfully.

"What if you were with another guy?" I suggested.

"That's why I said!" Katie smiled.

"Hang on," James held up his hands. "Then the paparazzi might think she was just leading us on, or using us to get to that guy. Or maybe they might realize she's faking it."

"What if you just pick one of them?" Katie asked.

To my surprise, Mari's cheeks turned red and she shook her head.

"I can't," she insisted. "It would be too weird."

"Do you actually like someone?" I asked her. She shrugged.

"I'm not gonna tell you," she crossed her arms.

I just rolled my eyes. I would get it out of her.

**Author's Note: Yeah. Kind of sucks. Not very exciting. But hey, next chapter's going to be crazy. I don't know if I'll be able to get it up by tomorrow or not. Depends on my level of homework and how I feel after school**


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Note: Sorry! I thought I would have this up by Thursday. I really have no excuse except the fact that I've been sick and lazy. Hey, did you see the Big Time Rush episode last night? I loved Logan, talking to his arm. And Carlos. "Kelly shoot him." And Gustavo as an evil scientist. It was really funny.**

**Disclaimer: Sh! I'm secretly one of the producers in disguise. Yeah, right. I wish. I don't own nothin' except Mari.**

_Carlos' POV_

The next day, as soon as Mrs. Knight came to my room and the doctor told her I could leave, I hurried to the cafeteria, where I ran into Mari and James.

"Hola," Mari said, popping a blueberry into her mouth.

"You okay?" James asked.

"Why wouldn't I be?" I wondered.

"Well, you kind of look sick," James told me. "And you never get sick."

It was true. I didn't get sick easily. The last time I'd been truly sick was in second grade, and it had been chicken pox.

"I feel fine," I shrugged. Mari nodded and then started bobbing her head to the song in the background.

"Recognize this song?" she asked me. I nodded. It was 'Don't Stop Believing,' her favorite song of all time.

"Hey, guess what?" Katie suddenly appeared next to me, bouncing up and down.

"You had a lot of sugar?" Mari guessed.

"Yes, but that's not what I'm talking about," Katie pointed at her. "The paparazzi are gone! Apparently something to do with a drunk celebrity. I don't know, I didn't listen."

"Hallelujah!" Mari said, throwing her hands up and nearly tipping her chair over.

"Smooth," James commented.

"Eh, shut up," she took a drink of her Coke.

"Your nose okay?" Katie asked me, still bouncing up and down.

"Does it look okay?" I asked, sort of joking. I had a bandage on it. It was really weird. I'd broken plenty of other bones before, but surprisingly never broken my nose.

"Hey," Logan walked up. He yawned.

"What's up?" Mari handed him some blueberries. He grinned and ate them.

"I don't know, the doctor wanted to talk to Mrs. Knight alone," he shrugged.

"Is Kendall okay?" James asked. Logan raised an eyebrow as he pulled out his lucky comb.

"He seemed fine yesterday," he said. "Sort of."

"I think he got the flu or something," Mari offered her fruit to all of us. We immediately took some. "I mean, he had an allergic reaction. Does that affect your immune system?"

We looked at Logan. He sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Probably," he said. "I don't really know."

Before he could say anything else, Katie's cell phone rang.

"Hello?" she answered. "Down in the cafeteria. Yeah, everyone's here. Yup. Why? You're kidding me."

"I really hate only listening to one side of the conversation," Mari complained. Katie threw her a look.

"All right, fine," Katie sighed. "Yeah. Got it. Bye."

She hung up, looking slightly irritated.

"What?" Mari asked, grabbing the last strawberry before I could. I made a face at her, and ended up hurting my nose. Logan rolled his eyes.

"My mom says that because the paparazzi's gone, we should all go back to the Palm Woods. Apparently we don't have a choice," Katie sighed.

"Back to the Palm Woods or in a hospital?" Mari thought out loud. "I like the idea of the Palm Woods."

"I don't," I said. "I can't go swimming."

"That's what the TV is for," James pointed out. I shrugged.

"When's Kendall being released?" Logan asked.

"I thought it would be yesterday," I said.

"Let's go get our stuff," Mari stood up. "We can ask Mrs. Knight when we get to the room."

We hurried up to the room. Kendall was still asleep, which was really weird. We got our stuff.

"When is he going to be able to leave?" Logan asked Mrs. Knight.

"Tomorrow, hopefully," Mrs. Knight said. "I can trust you guys if I stay the night here, right?" She looked each of us in the eye. We nodded.

"Good," she smiled and we left. Mari was the only one with a vehicle there, so we all piled into her truck. She could fit six and there were only five, so it's not like we were breaking any laws, although Mari was tempted to throw us all in the back so we would distract her. She was kidding. I think.

When we got back to the Palm Woods, there was no sign of any paparazzi, and everything looked normal. We climbed out of the truck and walked in, where we were immediately surrounded by our friends.

"Carlos, what happened?" Stephanie asked me. I think she still liked me, although we had decided to see other people.

"A paparazzi guy slammed his camera into my face," I explained, feeling slightly stupid.

"Whoa," Guitar Dude said.

After talking to all our friends for a while, we went up to our apartment to find that we were completely out of food. Mrs. Knight was supposed to go shopping, but obviously that never happened.

"I'll go shopping," Mari volunteered.

"I'll go with you," Katie offered. Mari nodded and they left.

It was good to be home, but I was bored within ten minutes. I wanted to go jump in the pool, but I wasn't allowed to get my nose wet. So, instead, I was stuck in the apartment, laying on the couch. Logan was sitting at the table, writing a letter or something like that. James was in the shower. He said his hair needed to be conditioned properly. Especially after being in the hospital.

I started watching Spongebob Squarepants. After about three episodes, Mari and Katie came through the door.

"See?" Mari nearly yelled, waving a magazine around. "I told you!"

"What?" I groaned, not wanting to move from my position. I was comfortable.

Logan got up and took the magazine from Mari. Mari took it back and opened it to a page.

"'How many boyfriends can one girl have?'" he read aloud. "'Big Time Rush's drummer Mari Mitchell is apparently trying to figure it out. Our cameras have caught her with at least four different boys.'"

"Four?" I asked, still not moving.

"There's a picture of you and her, and one of her and James, and one of her and this guy that looks familiar," Logan showed me.

"That's my drum instructor, Mike," Mari groaned. "Remember? Gustavo hired him to 'make me better' or whatever he said. We went out to lunch. Kelly was there, too."

"But she's not in this picture," Logan said.

"And Katie isn't in the one with me and James, but she was there," Mari pointed out. "The paparazzi hate me."

She groaned and fell into the chair. Logan wandered over to the window. I flipped the channel to _Finding Nemo._

"Did you get food?" James asked, coming out of his bedroom. Mari threw the magazine at him. He screamed and ducked. It just barely missed his face.

"Yeah, we got food," Katie nodded. "Mari, come on. We left it all in the truck."

"I'm coming, I'm coming," Mari got up and followed Katie out to her truck.

"Uh, guys?" Logan said from the window. "Mari! Katie! Wait!"

He ran after them. James looked at me, confused. I shrugged. Realizing that I wasn't going to get up, James went to the window himself.

"Great. Now the paparazzi are here," he moaned.

Great. Just what we needed. More publicity.

"Oh, look, there's Gustavo," James said. I didn't move. "And Kelly. And who the heck is that? It looks like she's yelling at the paparazzi."

"Open the window," I suggested. He did.

"-This is private property!" we heard.

"Mr. Bitters is walking out now," James said. "He's staring at everyone. There's Logan. And Katie. I don't see Mari, though. Now Camille's getting into it. This is getting out of control."

"No kidding," I said, staring at the ceiling. James looked at me and rolled his eyes.

"Now Mr. Bitters is on the phone. I don't know who he's calling," James said. "Oh, Logan's looking at me. Now he's signing. Carlos, get over here. I don't know sign language."

I sighed and stood up. Logan was signing, "He's calling the police. Mari's on her way up."

I translated and laid back down. Hollywood was too crazy sometimes.

**Author's Note: Lazy Carlos. Ha ha. Just kidding. I'm sorry if something about his nose is weird. No one in my family has ever had a broken nose and so I'm just going off of what I guess. Sorry.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Note: I'm in my writing mood. Who knows how many chapters I'll put up today? This one's kinda crazy. I don't know what inspired it. And I don't know how long this story is going to be. And I keep getting off track in it. It makes me laugh...**

**Disclaimer: *wishing I owned Big Time Rush* I don't own BTR...**

_James' POV_

Mari walked in about two minutes after Logan signed to us. She looked upset, but she went straight into the room she shared with Katie, not even looking at me or Carlos. Carlos didn't move until she slammed the door. Then he sat up and sighed.

"Man," he said. "Hollywood just doesn't like Mari."

I raised an eyebrow.

Katie came into the room just then, half-running, half-sliding. She nodded at us and headed straight for her bedroom, too, leaving me and Carlos very confused.

"Whoa," Carlos said just as there was a thud on the door. I went and opened it to find Logan lying on the ground.

"I thought it was open," he explained as I pulled him up. "Katie just came in here, right?"

"Yup," Carlos nodded. "What happened?"

"Gustavo and Kelly brought a lawyer," Logan said. "The lawyer was saying that Mari was a minor and that they had to have parent consent to put her in a magazine and that if they wanted to, our parents could sue. I doubt they will, but that's not the point. Then she said that this was private property and Katie yelled for Mr. Bitters. Mr. Bitters came out and freaked out on the paparazzi and called the police. The police are probably clearing the area right now. Where's Mari?"

"In her bedroom," I said. "Katie's in there, too."

Logan nodded and headed there, too. Two minutes later, he came back out, a frustrated look on his face.

"They won't let me in," he said, sitting down on the couch with Carlos.

"We still don't have food," Carlos complained.

"Shut up," Logan and I said. Carlos yawned in response.

"Hey!" Camille came into the room, Stephanie right behind her. "Where's Mari?"

"In her bedroom, though I doubt she'll let you in," I told her. They went back to the bedroom, and we heard the door open and then close.

"Wow," Logan grumbled. "Her brother's girlfriend can go in, but not her brother. Wow."

I tried not to smile at the annoyed look on Logan's face. It wasn't really the time to laugh, but Logan was being ridiculous.

"She probably just wants to talk to girls," I pointed out.

"Yeah," Carlos nodded. "I mean, she hangs out with us all the time. She doesn't really have any girls to talk to."

Logan shrugged.

"Okay!" Carlos jumped up and wobbled. "Whoa. Head rush. I'm gonna go get Mari's keys and we can bring in the food. 'Cause I'm hungry."

I rolled my eyes, but agreed. Carlos went to Mari's bedroom. The door opened and closed.

"Don't tell me Carlos was allowed in there," Logan groaned.

The door opened and closed again and Carlos walked out of the hallway.

"Wow. That was awkward," Carlos commented, walking out the door. Logan sighed.

"You don't think he was actually going to explain to us why, do you?" he asked me. I shrugged.

"Let's go get the food," I said and followed Carlos out to Mari's truck.

When we finished bringing in the groceries, we heard laughing coming from Mari's bedroom.

"Hey, guys!" Katie yelled. "Come here. We have a question."

We looked at each other. I didn't know about the others, but this sounded like a bad idea. I only went to the bedroom because I was curious.

"What?" Carlos asked when we walked into the bedroom.

"What song is this?" Mari started playing her guitar.

"We can't figure it out," Camille explained. We listened for a while. It was familiar, but I couldn't place it.

"'Seven Things,' Miley Cyrus," Carlos said. We stared at him.

"What?" he demanded. "I told you I listen to everything! That includes Miley Cyrus."

"He's right!" Mari declared. "Thank you."

"Why is that stuck in your head?" Camille asked.

"How do you know how to play that?" Stephanie added.

"She can play everything," Carlos said.

"I play by ear," Mari explained.

"Play a song we know," I suggested. Mari thought for a second and started playing. It was 'Chemicals React' by Aly and AJ. We used to listen to them all the time. I mean _all_ the time. Mari and I were obsessed with them for a while.

"You make me feel out of my element," Mari started. "Like I'm walking on broken glass. Like my world's spinning in slow motion, and you're moving too fast.

Katie joined in at the chorus. I was surprised. I'd never heard Katie sing before, but she had a really good voice.

"You make me feel out of my element. Like I'm drifting out to the sea," Katie took the second verse. "Like the tide's pulling me in deeper, making it harder to breathe."

Without speaking to each other, they split the parts easily.

"Wow," Logan breathed when they were finished. Carlos clapped enthusiastically.

"That was awesome!" Camille said. Katie actually turned red. Mari grinned.

"I knew Mari could sing, but Katie, you have an amazing voice!" Stephanie told her. Katie grinned.

We spent a few more hours singing. My personal favorite was when Mari and Carlos decided to sing 'Wouldn't Change a Thing' from Camp Rock 2. My second favorite, however, was when we started 'Don't Stop Believing.' We were still laughing from Carlos' impression of Justin Bieber. We couldn't figure out who it was until after he was done. I mean, I respect him as an artist, but Carlos was really funny.

Finally, though, when we had sore throats and our stomachs hurt from laughing, Mari decided she was done playing the guitar. We hadn't realized it was it was nearly midnight. Camille and Stephanie decided to text their parents that they were spending the night. We had a really, really hard time getting to sleep because of this. When Carlos started singing 'I Kissed a Girl,' we all kind of lost it and put a movie on, which we then proceeded to not pay attention to.

Carlos decided he was going to play Mari's guitar. To my surprise and everyone else's, he was pretty good. He confessed to us that he'd been playing since he was eight.

By this time we were beyond being sane. If Mrs. Knight had walked in right then, we probably would have been yelled at for being up so late. But Mari didn't show any of her anger or stress from earlier, so none of us were complaining.

"Katie, I am going to teach you how to play the drums," Mari suddenly decided.

"I don't think that would be a good idea right now," Camille pointed out.

"I'm not allowed to have my drum set at the Palm Woods anyway," Mari shrugged. "I meant tomorrow. If we're awake enough."

"Oh!" Carlos sat up suddenly. "I have an idea!"

He got up and ran out of the apartment.

"Well, that can't be good," Logan said. Mari hiccupped, causing Katie to giggle again.

Carlos came back with a pool noodle in his hand.

"So what is this brilliant plan of yours?" Mari said, now sitting upside down on the couch.

Carlos opened his mouth, then looked confused.

"I don't remember," he said. We started laughing again.

Finally, around five o'clock, we all passed out. We were in the living room, sprawled out in random places. I was the last one asleep.

_Kendall's POV_

My friends had not shown up the next day when the doctor let me go. I was very confused. This is, until I walked into the apartment. My friends were all over the living room. Camille and Stephanie were there, too.

"Whoa," my mom said. I was trying not to laugh. The girls were on one side of the room and the guys were on the other. Mari's guitar was sitting on the counter. Everyone was fast asleep.

My mom raised an eyebrow.

"Well, it looks like they had a party, but the apartment isn't trashed," she said. I spotted a magazine on the floor and picked it up. It was already open to a page.

"They were probably trying to distract Mari from this," I showed my mom. She gasped.

"Do you want me to wake them up?" I asked. She nodded. I walked over to the TV and turned it on to Spongebob Squarepants. Carlos sat straight up.

"Spongebob!" he said. Then he saw me. "Kendall!"

"What?" Mari jumped and fell off the couch onto the floor, nearly landing on Katie. Katie woke up and glared at Mari.

"What was that for?" Katie yelled.

"103!" Logan yelled, sitting up. "Oh. Sorry."

"Shut up, I'm sleeping," James mumbled.

"Kendall!" Mari spotted me. Katie rolled over.

"What about Kendall?" James asked, still half asleep.

"He's right there!" Mari rolled her eyes. Camille opened her eyes.

"Hi!" she grinned. Stephanie rolled over and ended up on my foot.

"What the?" she opened her eyes and looked up. "Oh. Hi, Kendall."

"What happened here?" my mom asked.

Mari grinned. "Well, you see…"

**Author's Note: I like the idea of Carlos playing the guitar. I don't know why...Anyway, crazy party (not really) and singing. Yay!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's Note: I just realized I totally forgot about Nina. Whoops. Just in case you wondering, she left for Minnesota at the end of the first chapter...Ha. Epic fail on my part. Anyway, I said I'm in my writing mood. And I'm listening to my BTR CD. It's awesome. Yay!**

**Disclaimer: I still only own Mari...**

_Mari's POV_

I had almost completely forgotten about the magazine until I saw it sitting on the counter. That just made me feel bad all over again. I couldn't stay sad long though, because we were still recounting the night before to Kendall and his mom. It was quite obvious that Kendall thought we'd all lost it.

"Hey, did you know Carlos can play the guitar?" James asked him.

"You skipped a lot there, buddy," I told him. "You forgot the part that Katie can sing."

"What?" Kendall was extremely confused.

"James, shut up, you don't know how to tell a story," I said. He glared at me, then shrugged and began combing his hair.

"Well, see, Camille and Stephanie came over to talk to Mari," Logan said.

"And I started playing my guitar. Then we couldn't figure out what song I was playing, so we asked the guys to help figure it out and Carlos did," I took a breath finally. "Then we had a little singing powwow and then we realized it was almost midnight."

"So Camille and I texted our parents and stayed the night," Stephanie said.

It went on like that for a while. The story jumped around from person to person and finally Kendall just started laughing.

"You're not making any sense," he managed to tell us.

My phone started ringing. It was 'Shot in the Dark' which was Gustavo's ringtone.

"What?" I answered.

"You stink at fixing things," Gustavo roared into the phone.

"I'm fine, thanks for asking." I said sarcastically. I imagined Gustavo rolling his eyes.

"You realize that all of Big Time Rush's fans now really don't like you? They could boycott Big Time Rush because of you," Gustavo was being irrational.

"They're not going to boycott Big Time Rush," now I was rolling my eyes. "They'll come to support the boys. They don't have to like me."

"They're going to boycott anyway until I fire you or something changes," Gustavo insisted.

"Look, mail for Mari!" I heard Kelly in the background. "Oh. But it's not very nice."

"Oh, great," I said.

"Just figure out a way to make this better!" Gustavo yelled and hung up.

I hung up and stared at the phone for a couple of seconds.

"That's it, I'm going back to Minnesota!" I announced and turned toward the door.

"Wait, what?" Logan said and someone grabbed my arm. It was Carlos.

"You're kidding, right?" he asked, concerned.

"Why?" I pulled my arm away. "What's the point? Gustavo told me that people are going to boycott Big Time Rush. I'm getting hate mail. Obviously people don't want me here."

With that, I left. If people thought that I was ruining Big Time Rush, then I was just going to leave. It was totally unfair to me, but it was unfair to Big Time Rush, too.

I heard someone following me. Wait, two people. The footsteps were all messed up. I couldn't tell.

I got on the elevator and saw a long line of people following me. The doors started to close, but Carlos and Katie managed to sneak on.

"What?" I demanded.

Before anyone said anything, the elevator stopped.

"Oh, just perfect," I groaned.

"Mari, you can't be serious," Carlos panted.

"You can't leave Hollywood!" Katie's eyes were wide.

I paced around the small elevator, nearly running Katie over several times. Finally, Carlos stopped me.

"What's really wrong here?" he asked, looking me in the eyes. "Something other than this is bothering you."

See? Didn't I say Carlos was good at reading emotions? Right now, I really didn't want that. Suddenly I realized how annoying I must be when people don't want to talk.

"You want to know what's wrong?" I exploded. "Let's see. My parents don't trust me. Logan doesn't trust me. Everyone tells me, 'Oh, look at your brother. Oh, he's so good at everything. Oh, Logan's so smart. Oh, he's so cute.' I came out here to make a name for myself. Well, I did. This just isn't what I wanted. Yet another place where I'm known as the irresponsible twin of Logan Mitchell. My self-esteem is already low, and the paparazzi really isn't helping."

I slumped against the wall, breathing hard. Carlos was quiet for a few minutes. Katie looked at me, then him, then back again.

"How about we try and fix the paparazzi problem first?" Carlos suggested.

"How?" I asked.

It was quiet again. I sat down. Katie joined me.

"What if we have each of the guys swear that you're not, nor have you ever been, their girlfriend?" Katie asked. "The drum instructor, too. Isn't he too old for you, anyway?"

"Yup," I nodded. "He's at least twenty-seven. I don't actually know how old he is. But he looks younger than he really is."

Carlos' cell phone started ringing.

"Huh?" he answered it absentmindedly. "Hi, Logan. The elevators stuck. I don't know. Shut up. Yeah, yeah, I know."

"Again with the one-sided crap," I mumbled. Katie giggled.

"Uh, I think she's calmed down," Carlos glanced at me. I crossed my eyes. "Yup. Sort of. What the heck is that supposed to mean?"

Carlos gasped and started coughing.

"Dude!" he exclaimed. "No! Why would you even think that?"

His face was turning red. Katie giggled again.

"Katie's here, too," Carlos said. I gasped. I had a feeling I knew exactly what Logan had just asked.

"Whatever," Carlos said and hung up. He joined Katie and I on the floor. I couldn't help it; I started laughing.

"What?" Carlos looked at me.

"I know exactly what Logan said," I managed to tell him.

"Shut up," he glared at me.

"My brother apparently doesn't trust anyone," I told Katie.

"And what about you?" Carlos challenged.

I stopped laughing. "What about me?"

"Do you feel that way about me?"

"No comment."

I just barely managed to keep my face from turning red.

"What about Kendall?"

"No comment."

"James?"

"Carlos, the answer is still no comment."

"Do you have any crushes?"

"Not really."

"You're lying."

"I am not!" Darn it. I forgot Carlos could tell when I was lying, too.

"Right," Carlos said slowly.

"Why did your face turn red when Logan asked you?" I randomly started braiding my hair.

Carlos crossed his arms.

"No comment."

Darn it!

Katie cleared her throat and both of us jumped. I guess we both forgot she was there.

"I will never understand teenagers," she sighed. "How long do you think we'll be stuck here?"

"Too long," I answered, leaning back and closing my eyes.

We were quiet yet again.

"Hey, Carlos," I said. "Did you ever remember what your plan was last night?"

His eyes widened.

"Nope," he shook his head. "And it's getting really annoying. It's bugging me."

"Poor baby," Katie said sarcastically. I yawned.

"If the elevator opened and our friends found us asleep, what do you think they would say?" I asked.

"They would give us weird looks and things would be awkward for a few hours," Carlos predicted.

"Probably," Katie nodded.

I leaned against the wall again. Being trapped in here was going to drive me nuts.

**Author's Note: I love the interaction between Mari and Carlos. Weird chapter, I know. Will Mari leave for Minnesota? Stay tuned for the next chapter!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Author's Note: I am seriously loving writing this story. Even though it's really kind of lame compared to some other things I've written...Anyway, why else would I update four times in one day? Kind of makes up for not posting since Tuesday. Ha, ha. Just kidding.**

**Disclaimer: I haven't acquired Big Time Rush in the past few hours, although it's not for lack of trying...(Just kidding!)**

_Logan's POV_

Great. The elevator was stuck, Mari was angry, and Carlos and Katie were in there with her.

Carlos insisted that he didn't have a crush on her. I wasn't totally sure that I believed him. I don't know. All I knew was that Mari was really angry and wanted to go back to Minnesota, Gustavo was a dead man, and I could not get 'I Kissed a Girl' out of my head.

Kendall still looked confused. He hadn't been there for the big paparazzi invasion, so he really didn't understand yet. James was explaining to him all of that part. Stephanie and Camille had gone to tell Mr. Bitters what was going on. Not that it would do much. A few weeks ago, James had been trapped in the elevator for about four hours before Mr. Bitters got around to doing anything.

Apparently Mr. Bitters was in a sort of sympathetic mood, because he called someone right away. They showed up pretty quickly, too.

When the elevator doors finally opened, Carlos and Mari were playing patty-cake while sitting on the floor, and Katie was half-asleep with her legs in between the two. It was actually kind of amusing.

"Yay!" Mari ran out of the elevator. "I hate elevators."

"You guys okay?" Kendall asked. I could see that he thought it was kind of funny, too, but he was hiding it better than I was.

"Yup," Katie said. She looked like she wanted to crack up. I wasn't sure why.

"Did something happen?" James asked.

"Well, we talked, and Katie said we should have you guys swear to the media-Katie, what did you say?" Mari asked her.

"I said that you guys should tell the media that Mari is not, nor has she ever been, your girlfriend," Katie said, sitting down.

"And I'm gonna call Mike and have him do it, too," Mari told us.

"Works for me," I shrugged.

"You don't have to do anything," Kendall pointed out.

"Exactly," I grinned. Mari playfully shoved me.

"Anything else?" James pressed. I wondered why.

Carlos glanced at Mari, who shook her head.

"Nope," she said. Katie snorted.

"We had a pretty funny conversation," Katie laughed. Mari and Carlos glared at her.

"About what?" I asked.

"Life," Mari and Carlos said together. Katie stared at the two of them.

"Did you plan that?" she asked. They shook their head.

"Wait, how do we get the media?" Kendall asked.

"Easy," Mari said. "Call them and tell them we have a story."

_Kendall's POV_

I had a lot of questions to ask Mari and Carlos, but I decided to leave them for later. Mike showed up shortly after Mari called him, and then Katie and Mari got to work calling magazines and news reporters.

"Oh, this better work," Mari muttered as we went to Rocque Records, where we told the paparazzi to go.

"I can't believe they thought you and I were dating," Mike shook his head. Logan shuddered.

"Can we please not talk about it?" he asked. "That's creepy enough."

Mari smirked from the driver's seat. We had to take my mom's van, because there wasn't enough room in her truck. All seven of us, Katie included, had piled in and were getting ready for the announcement.

"Carlos!" James finally yelled. He'd been bouncing around like crazy, and it was really starting to get annoying. Mari rolled her eyes as she pulled into Rocque Records' parking lot, where already there were quite a few photographers and reporters.

I swallowed hard. I didn't know if this would work, and I didn't want to make anything worse for Mari. Or any of the others.

We got out of the van. The paparazzi immediately headed toward us, but Freight Train, who we had called before hand, kept them back.

"This better work," Gustavo echoed what Mari had said earlier. "And once you're done, if you're up to it, we're going to record a new song. You've had enough time off."

"Right," Carlos said slowly, crossing his eyes to look at his nose, which still had a bandage on it. "Just as long as we don't dance."

I nodded. I wasn't one hundred percent normal yet. I was more at seventy percent, as I still felt sick.

"Good luck," Katie whispered. She started to go inside, but Mari grabbed her arm and dragged her with us.

"Mari!" Katie whined.

"Come on, please?" Mari looked at her. Katie sighed and nodded.

Soon, almost everyone Mari and Katie had called showed up and we decided to just start.

Mari went up. Gustavo had hooked up a microphone somehow and handed it to Mari. The speakers were near the media.

"Hi," Mari said, sounding really nervous. She cleared her throat. "Several rumors have been going on about me and others. None of these are true. I am not dating anyone at the moment. I have actually never dated anyone. I'm not ready to date yet, and really, it's none of your business if I am."

I had to smirk at that. Some of the media looked confused.

"Kendall, James, and Carlos are my best friends," Mari continued. "I don't know if I could date one of the, but if I did, it wouldn't be all three at once. And Mike is my drum instructor. He's twenty-eight, and he's also married. I have no interest in dating him, either."

"I don't even think we'll have to speak," Carlos whispered to me. I shrugged.

"Why were you with them separately?" someone called out.

"Actually, when that picture of me and Mike was taken, Kelly Wainwright was with us as well," Mari said. "And Katie was with me and James when the picture of us were taken. Carlos and I had been at a meeting at Rocque Records and hadn't been able to get into the hospital again because of the paparazzi blocking us. And Kendall and I weren't alone. We went to a party. And I was just trying to cheer him up."

"That didn't work, did it?" someone else called out, joking. Mari laughed a little bit.

"No, it didn't," Mari said. "I was not told there was going to be alcohol at the party. Someone spiked the drinks, and we didn't now it."

I winced. I really didn't want them to bring this up.

"Kendall!" someone called out. I silently groaned. Mari glanced at me.

"Kendall isn't answering questions at this time," Mari said. I tried not to show the relief on my face. "That's all I have to say."

She stepped away and we hurried inside.

"That was great," Logan told his sister, giving her a hug.

"I sounded way too formal," she sighed.

"At least you didn't freak out when they said your name," I pointed out.

"Actually, none of them said my name," Mari joked. "Sorry. I didn't mean to bring it up."

"It's okay," I shrugged. And it really was. It wasn't Mari's fault.

"Anyone feel like recording a song?" Gustavo asked. Mari's eyes widened.

"Hey, Katie, remember what I said last night?" she turned to my sister, who nodded. "Come on!" Mari pulled Katie away.

"What did she say last night?" I asked.

"That she was going to teach Katie how to play drums," Logan answered. I nodded.

"Interesting," Gustavo suddenly sounded like he wanted to follow Mari and Katie. Then he snapped out of it. "To the studio with you!" he said, pointing.

"Does he seem like he's in a good mood to you guys?" Carlos whispered. I nodded.

"Yup," Logan agreed.

We recorded for a while. Before too long, though, my throat got sore and I was coughing. Gustavo made me stop and continued with the other three. They didn't really get anything done.

I was disappointed as I tried not to fall asleep out in the sitting area. My friends knew I was sic now, and they were probably going to tell my mom. My mom would freak out and baby me until I got better. That sounds like a weird thing to get upset about, but when I say baby, I mean that literally. Like I'll be stuck in my bed for the next week, no nothing at all.

I then couldn't fight it anymore and I fell asleep.

**Author's Note: Uh-oh, Kendall's sick! And Katie's learning how to drum! And Mari's...who knows what Mari's up to? Anyway, I love ya'll for reading. Even if you think I'm strange. ^-^**


	14. Chapter 14

**Author's Note: Rawr. I really have nothing to say except the fact that love everyone who's reviewed or read my story. Hey! No one's voted on my poll yet! VOTE! Yay!**

**Disclaimer: I bought Big Time Rush yesterday. And that, my friends, is what we call sarcasm. It's my second language.**

_Carlos' POV_

Kendall was asleep on the couch when we came out of the recording studio. I raised an eyebrow.

"Uh, is he okay?" Mari asked, appearing next to us. Katie wasn't far behind, rubbing her left wrist.

"Well, he started coughing a lot in the middle of recording," James said. "Gustavo made him stop and he came out here. Apparently he fell asleep."

Logan walked over to Kendall and felt his forehead.

"I can't decide if my hand's just really cold or Kendall's head is burning hot," he said. Mari went and felt his forehead.

"He's got a fever," she announced.

"Oh, great," Katie said.

"Did you just say Kendall's got a fever?" Kelly said, coming up to us.

"Yup!" I nodded, making a face and hurting my nose yet again.

"Great," she groaned. "Griffin just asked if you guys could perform in a couple of days. I doubt that's gonna happen now."

"We should get him home," Mari said.

"You okay, Katie?" Logan asked her.

"Drumming hurts," she said. Mari grinned and nodded.

"Do we wake him up or carry him out?" James asked.

"Uh, we should wake him up," I said. "I don't know about you, but I would freak out if I was asleep and woke up to my friends carrying me."

"Good point," Mari nodded. Katie walked over to her brother and gently woke him up.

"We're still at the studio?" Kendall blinked and looked around.

"Yup, and you've got a fever," Mari informed him. "So we're going home. Get up slowly, just in case."

Kendall followed her instructions and nearly fell over as soon as he was standing. James let him lean on him as we walked out to the minivan.

Thankfully, there weren't any paparazzi guys to see Kendall this sick. We got him home as fast as possible and in bed. Mrs. Knight came home as soon as we called her and bought Kendall some medicine on her way.

"Aw, poor Kendall," Mari said as we went down to the lobby. Logan had stayed to see if he could help. Katie was tired and wanted to take a nap. James was with us, though.

"That's gotta suck," I said, remembering this time to not make a face.

We sat down with Camille and Stephanie in the lobby. Camille looked kind of upset.

"What's wrong?" I asked her.

"Jo's moving to Canada," she sniffled. "She got a part on a new TV show and she decided to move."

I raised an eyebrow. I really hadn't seen much of Jo since she broke up with Kendall. I wasn't sure how he was going to react to this news. He didn't seem to be too broken up about it, but then again, he didn't seem to be as sick as he was earlier, either. So maybe he was hiding it.

Or maybe he wasn't. Who knew?

"Well, that sucks," Mari finally said. "When is she leaving? I haven't talked to her for a while."

"She left about ten minutes ago," Camille said.

"Oh," Mari looked at the ground. "Well, crap."

I smirked. Then winced.

"Why does it hurt to do everything?" I whined.

"'Cause your nose is broken," Mari grinned at me.

"Duh," James said. I glared at him, then at Mari.

"How long until it stops hurting?" I asked them.

"About two weeks to stop hurting," Logan said from behind me, making me jump. "Two months to fully heal."

"Jeez, Logan, a little warning next time," James said from the chair.

"Sorry," Logan looked slightly confused. "So, what's up?"

"Jo's moving to Canada," Mari told him. "And I have a headache. Katie is a good drummer, Carlos doesn't like having a broken nose, and you just showed up. Oh, and Kendall's sick. Let us not forget that."

Logan raised an eyebrow.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Nope," Mari shook her head. "I think last night's finally getting to me."

I grinned, then yawned.

"Looks like it's getting to Carlos, too," James joked.

"Maybe we should all go take naps before we end up sick like Kendall," Logan said. We agreed and went upstairs to our apartment, where we found Kendall sleeping on the couch. He was really pale.

"He can't stay in his bedroom," Mrs. Knight said. "He's throwing up too much."

"He didn't throw up in the room, did he?" James asked. He shared a room with Kendall, so I could see his concern.

"No, he didn't," Mrs. Knight assured him. "You're free to sleep in there. Mari, be quiet when you go into your room. Katie's asleep."

"No problem, Mrs. K," Mari yawned and went into her room. I followed Logan into our bedroom and collapsed on my back onto my bed. Logan got in his bed much more quietly, but I didn't care. I was suddenly exhausted and fell asleep immediately.

_Mari's POV_

It was really quiet when I woke up. The clock said that it was eight o'clock. I'd only napped for two hours. Katie was still asleep. And by the sounds of it, so was everyone else. I got up and went out into the kitchen to get a drink of water. I could see that Kendall was sleeping, although it wasn't very peaceful. He looked like he was going to fall off the couch. Finally, though, he settled down. I went back into the bedroom and pulled out my notebook.

I'd been writing songs for a long time, since I was ten. I had a lot of good ones, but even more bad ones, and I was determined to make them better.

I worked on the songs for an hour before I fell asleep again with my notebook in my arms.

_Carlos' POV_

I woke up around midnight and was suddenly wide awake. I knew I probably wasn't going to fall asleep again. So I walked around the apartment. I somehow ended up in Mari and Katie's room. I walked over to their window and looked out it. Their window was definitely the best window. It had a great view of LA.

Suddenly, something hit the floor behind me and I jumped, barely keeping myself from yelling out. Turning, I saw a notebook on the floor next to Mari's bed. My curiosity got the best of me and I walked over to the notebook and picked it up. It was a notebook full of songs. I began to look through it when Mari woke up.

She did it quietly, so I didn't notice her awake at first.

"Carlos!" she whispered angrily. "What are you doing? That's private!"

She pulled the notebook away from me and hit me with it.

"Ow!" I protested. "Don't hit me!"

"Don't mess with my stuff!" she hit me again with the notebook. It hit me right in the stomach pretty hard and knocked the wind out of me. I doubled over and tried to catch my breath.

"Go away," Mari said. I looked at her, still trying to breathe. "I said go away!"

I got out of the room quickly, not wanting to be hit again. Apparently, looking at Mari's notebook was a big no-no. That was good to know. Now if only I could breathe.

Finally, I caught my breath and went out into the kitchen. I was hungry now, and thirsty. I got some cereal in a bowl and a glass of water and ate it. Kendall suddenly leaned over and threw up into the bucket that was conveniently placed right next to the couch. Kendall didn't even wake up, but his mom, who had been on the chair, got up immediately and dumped the bucket.

I lost my appetite and finished the glass of water. Then I wandered back to my room and pulled out my laptop. I got onto my IM account and saw that my sister, Tori, was still on. Tori's my oldest younger sister. I have five little sisters (and one little brother). Tori is only a year younger than me, so I'm closest to her.

**Carlitos: What's up?**  
**Toriz: Can't sleep. Bored. You?**  
**Carlitos: Same. We all went to bed early and now I'm wide awake.**  
**Toriz: I saw the articles about Mari. Is she okay?**

Tori's pretty good friends with Mari, so I knew she would be asking me about Mari.

**Carlitos: I think so. I think something is bothering her, but I don't know what.**  
**Toriz: I got the same feeling when she was talking to me : Any ideas?**  
**Toriz: I think she's got a crush. When I asked if she had any crushes, she immediately logged off.**  
**Carlitos: Weird…How's everyone at home?**  
**Toriz: Good. Emma said her first word. It was 'toy.' Go figure.**  
**Carlitos: Man, I missed it.**  
**Toriz: Oh! Joey decided to start guitar. And Bella's playing the piano **  
**Carlitos: Cool!**  
**Toriz: And I got a part in the school musical. **  
**Carlitos: I wish I could see it.**  
**Toriz: Maybe you could.**

Yeah, right. Gustavo's already freaking out on us for all the time off we'd already taken and Kendall's now sick. Man, I really missed Minnesota. I was missing everything.

**Carlitos: I wish. Gustavo's never gonna go for it.**  
**Toriz: Well, maybe Mom and Dad will videotape it.**  
**Carlitos: Yeah, maybe.**  
**Toriz: Gotta go! Jaimie's threatening to tell on me!**  
**Carlitos: Bye.**  
**_Toriz is no longer online_**

I sighed and logged off. I was really homesick all of the sudden. Sometimes I wished my family could have come out, too, but we couldn't afford it.

I closed my laptop and curled up in a ball on my bed. Maybe I could talk Gustavo into letting me go home.

Yeah, right.

**Author's Note: Aw. Poor Carlos. Don't ask with Tori's screen name. I'm hopeless at that kind of thing. Hey, does anybody else love the song 'Stuck?' It's my favorite BTR song right now. I'm kinda annoyed that it wasn't on the CD. Oh, well.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Author's Note: So, right now, and as I was finishing this, I was fighting sleeping...well, not exactly pills, but they help you sleep. So if it doesn't make sense toward the end or has mistakes, that would be why. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own nothin' but Mari. And I own Tori, too. Yay!**

_Logan's POV_

I woke up around four o'clock in the morning, feeling strangely alert. I looked over at Carlos, who was curled up in a ball on his bed, hugging his laptop and not totally asleep. I raised an eyebrow and got out of bed. There was no point in trying to get back to sleep now. I'd have to get up in a few hours anyway.

I walked out into the living room to find Kendall looking slightly better from the night before. He was staring at the TV, which was playing music videos. I saw that the one playing was from Camp Rock 2. I'm not sure Kendall was really taking anything in.

I turned toward the kitchen, where Mari was staring at me.

"Hi," I said.

"Hi," she smiled and waved.

"How long have you been up?" I asked her.

"About a half an hour," Mari said. "I made Mrs. Knight go to bed. She was sleeping on the chair. Well, not really sleeping. Kendall woke up about five minutes ago."

"Our schedules are going to be so messed up today," I commented.

"No kidding," Mari agreed, taking a bite out of an apple.

"Hey," Carlos stumbled out of the hall.

"Uh, are you okay?" Mari asked. He was still carrying his laptop, and he kind of looked like he was upset.

Carlos sat down at the counter next to me. He shrugged and took a banana.

"Well, that's not a real answer," Mari said, poking Carlos on the shoulder.

"I missed Emma's first word," he said, staring at the banana he was holding.

"So you're homesick?" Mari asked. I felt my eyes widen. Carlos nodded.

"Pretty much," he said. I realized how rough his voice sounded. "Tori got a part in her school musical, and I can't go see it. And it's driving me nuts."

I met Mari's eyes. Of course Carlos would be homesick. The rest of us had reasons not to be. James didn't have any siblings, and his parents could afford to fly out to see him every month. Mari and I had each other. And Kendall's family was already out here, minus his jerk of a father. Carlos, on the other hand, had none of his siblings out here, and his parents had seven kids to take care of, so they really didn't have much money to spend.

Suddenly, a light bulb went off in my sister's head and her eyes brightened. She went to sign to me, but then looked at Carlos and decided not to. Out of all of our friends, Carlos was the only other one who understood sign language. Mari had convinced him to take the class with us back in second grade. Instead, Mari ran to her bedroom and brought out a notebook. She started writing in French.

"_What if we fly Tori out here as a surprise?" _she wrote. I thought about that for a second.

"_What about her play?"_ I wrote back.

"_It is a _musical_, and I think she wouldn't mind. Besides, she's a great actor. She could probably get a movie deal or something."_

"What are you two doing?" Carlos mumbled, still staring at his banana.

"Practicing our French," Mari showed it to him. Carlos did speak Spanish (it was actually his first language) but he didn't know any French.

"Cool," Carlos winced. "My throat hurts. Jeez."

"You better not be getting sick, too," Mari pretended to threaten him. Carlos stuck his tongue out at her. I grinned.

"Here," I handed him a glass of water

"Thanks," Carlos drank it.

"Well, I see I'm not the only one who can't sleep," James walked out.

"Katie's awake, too, she's just writing something," Mari told us. "Kendall's just barely awake."

We looked at him. Mari was right. He was falling asleep in a sitting position.

"Man, he looks like crap," James said.

"Have you seen your hair?" I asked him. James grabbed at his head and ran into the bathroom. Mari snorted.

"I love how easy it is to distract you guys," she said to no one in particular. I rolled my eyes.

"Whoa," Kendall's voice came from the couch. "Hey, guys, look, it's us."

We turned around. Kendall was pointing at the TV. It was us. It was 'The City Is Ours.'

"Sweet!" Carlos ran over and jumped over the back of the chair, landing in a sitting position.

"James, we're on TV!" I called. James came out of the bathroom and stared at the TV. Mari laughed at us.

"Is this the first time you've seen your music video on TV?" she asked. I nodded.

"Really?" she seemed surprised. "It was on all the time before I came out here. Our news station was obsessed with it."

She shook her head and was quiet for the rest of the song.

"Hey, Mari?" James suddenly asked, after the music video. "What's your favorite song of ours?"

Mari stopped what she was doing for a second, thinking about it.

"I'd have to say 'A Shot in the Dark' or 'Stuck,'" she answered.

"Really?" James looked surprised. "I thought it was 'Big Night.'"

"That was a few weeks ago," Mari said. "I'm not sure why I moved on, though."

James spotted Mari's notebook on the counter and went to grab it. Mari freaked. Unlike Carlos, James did know French. She grabbed it from him and hit him with it. Carlos winced.

"What the heck?" James demanded.

"She did that to me last night," Carlos said.

"I thought that was a dream," Mari's eyes widened. "Oh, my gosh, I'm sorry! Both of you."

They shrugged. Mari looked at me. I was trying to figure out how to communicate with her without anyone else figuring out what we were talking about. Obviously she wanted to keep her idea with Tori a secret. I wasn't sure why, but I wasn't going to be the reason it wasn't a secret.

"I'm out of options," I said out loud. Mari rolled her eyes.

"For what?" James asked.

"Monkeys," Mari replied. James raised an eyebrow.

"What?" he asked.

"Exactly," Mari and I said together. James was confused, but I don't think he forgot what we were talking about. Finally, he shrugged and moved on.

Katie walked out.

"Hey, Mari, can I show you something?" she asked. My sister nodded and followed her.

"Why do I get the feeling they're planning to take over?" Carlos wondered out loud. I had to laugh.

Suddenly, Mari's face was on the screen. Kendall, who was way past being rational, threw a couch pillow at the TV. It didn't make it.

"Kendall, go to sleep," I said. He glared at me and instead grabbed the remote and turned up the volume on the TV.

It was about Mari's speech from the day before. I was really starting to get sick of people butting into her life. She hadn't really done anything wrong.

Suddenly, I realized something. I'd been a huge jerk after the whole party incident. I'd already accepted that part. But what I just now realized was that Mari really hadn't done it on purpose. Maybe none of her acting out was really on purpose. Or her fault, anyway.

"Oh, crap," I groaned.

"What?" Carlos asked.

"I'm a horrible brother," I said, not really thinking that through.

"Can't argue with that," James said absentmindedly. He ran his comb through his hair, then blinked. "Wait, what?"

"You guys are unbelievably supportive," I said sarcastically.

"We know," Kendall said, giving me a grin. At least he was acting normal. More or less, anyway. Carlos finally began eating his banana.

"It's really good, I promise," Mari's voice came from the hallway. She was following Katie out into the kitchen.

"What is?" Carlos asked.

"Stop asking questions," Kendall groaned. There went acting normal.

"A story Katie's writing about us," Mari gestured to all six of us.

"Interesting," James said. "Can I read it?"

"Not yet," Katie shook her head.

"I didn't even get to read the entire thing, and I'm the editor," Mari told us. I grinned.

"Mari, look!" Katie suddenly said, pointing to the screen. The headline said, **Was Mari Mitchell's statement true?**

"Oh, for the love of who knows what, why can't they just shut up about me?" Mari groaned. Kendall began laughing uncontrollably, then stood up and ran to the bathroom.

"It's only five in the morning," Carlos complained.

"They don't think you were being honest," James told Mari.

"Of course they don't," Mari sighed.

I was getting mad now. I made a plan to go talk to some of the magazines later. It was time they left Mari alone.

**Author's Note: Yay for sleeping medication!**


	16. Chapter 16

**Author's Note: Hola! This chapter's really...interesting. Kind of random at the beginning. I'm in a random mood. It's really weird.**

**Disclaimer: *facepalm***

_James' POV_

When it was finally time for normal people to be up, Carlos and I went to Rocque Records. Logan had taken Mari's truck, promising to meet us there after he did something. Kendall wasn't coming anyway. Mari said she was coming later because Gustavo was working on a new song and she would have to record the drums for it. So it was just me and Carlos.

"Carlos, calm down," I said for the eighteenth time. Carlos had forced me to stop at Starbucks on the way over to Rocque Records so he could have coffee. I knew it was a bad idea, but I did it anyway.

Maybe one of these times I'll learn.

Anyway, Gustavo looked at us like we were crazy when there were only two of us.

"Where's Logan and Kendall?" he demanded.

"Well, Kendall's got the flu," Carlos said.

"What?" Gustavo yelled.

"And Logan said he would meet us here," I finished.

"When?" Kelly asked, more calm than Gustavo.

I shrugged. I had no idea what Logan was doing. Or how long it would take him. They would have to ask him when he got here.

"Call him!" Gustavo said.

"We already tried that," Carlos said. "He didn't answer."

"Well, then, get Mari here so I can do something," Gustavo ordered us. Carlos immediately pulled out his phone.

Ten minutes later, Mari showed up, looking slightly annoyed. Her hair was wet, and was pulled back in a messy bun. She looked like she wanted to go back to bed.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Kendall threw up on me," she explained. "I just finished showering when you called. Like, literally just finished."

Gustavo made her go practice her part. She looked murderous, so I was kind of glad that she was hitting her drums and not me.

An hour later, Logan ran into the studio. He nearly fell over as soon as he got in the door. Mari, who had calmed down, cracked up. Logan glared at her and Carlos started giggling like an idiot.

"What is with you people?" Gustavo demanded.

"We woke up at four this morning," Carlos said through his giggling. I rolled my eyes, but couldn't help but laugh, too.

"Why?" Kelly asked.

"'Cause we went to bed at seven last night," Mari told them. "And the night before, we were up until five. And slept until eleven."

Gustavo rolled his eyes, making me laugh harder. Logan was looking at us like we were crazy.

Mari's phone started ringing.

"Hello?" she answered. "Hi, Katie. Yeah, hang on, let me find out."

She put the phone down. "Am I done?"

"Why?" Logan asked, interested.

"Because Mrs. Knight has to go run some errands and for some reason she doesn't trust a sick Kendall with checking up on Katie," Mari grimaced.

"Yeah, go ahead," Gustavo waved her off. She saluted him and left. I watched her go, wondering what was going on with her. She seemed more moody than before.

I shrugged it off. I didn't really have time to think about it.

_Mari's POV_

An hour after I got home, I heard a knock on the door. I got up, expecting it to be Camille or Stephanie, but it wasn't.

Nope, instead it was a huge slap in the face. My parents were standing on the other side of the door.

"Mom? Dad?" I stared. Kendall, who was still on the couch, sat up, slightly interested. I threw him a panicked look and then turned back to my parents, who were already walking into the apartment.

"This is so cool!" my dad said. "A swirly slide?"

Now you know why Carlos and my dad get along so well.

"Hi, Kendall," my mom sang out.

Oh, crap. She was being way too peppy, which meant either I was in trouble, or someone in our family had died. Either one was not a good thing.

"Hi, Mrs. Mitchell," Kendall laid back down and stared at the ceiling. I could see that he was trying really hard not to laugh.

Katie suddenly walked in the room. She glanced around the room, mumbled something, and turned around.

"Katie!" I called after her, hoping she would come back.

"No!" she yelled back. I tried not to groan. I pulled out my cell phone.

"What are you doing?" my mom asked.

"Warning Logan," I replied. "He doesn't like surprises, remember?"

My parents looked at each other. I didn't like that look. There was definitely some bad news coming. I looked at Kendall, who was still staring at the ceiling, except now he was back to being loopy. He switched way too often.

"Mari," my mom said. I looked at her. "We came here because, well, we don't think you're ready for Hollywood."

"What?" I exclaimed. Kendall shot straight up, his eyes wide. He gave me the same panicked look I'd given him before, and then grabbed at his head.

"Head rush," he mumbled.

"You see, we thought we could trust you out here," my mom said. "You promised that you wouldn't get into trouble."

"But-," I started to protest, but my mom held her hands up.

"I'm not finished yet," she said. "You've showed us that you're not responsible enough to be out here. So, you're going home with us tomorrow."

"What?" I felt like crying.

"What?" Kendall echoed. My mom turned to him. He cleared his throat, then coughed.

"But nothing that's happened is her fault," he said. "The party wasn't her fault. No one told her that someone was going to spike the punch. And the media butts into everyone's business. It's not her fault that they 'caught' her with four guys. By the way, she was never really alone with them. Or me."

Kendall looked slightly confused. I groaned and shot my dad a look, begging for help. My dad has always been on my side of arguments, whether they make sense or not. I'm not sure why.

"Look, honey," he said. "Maybe Kendall's right. Maybe Mari is being responsible and it doesn't matter."

"How did Carlos break his nose?" my mom asked Kendall. She thought that was my fault? The guy admitted that he did and publicly apologized to Carlos. What the _heck_?

"A paparazzi guy hit him in the face with his camera," Kendall answered, still looking confused. Katie walked in right then.

"Katie, do you believe that anything that's happened has been Mari's fault?" my dad looked at her. She stared at us.

"Uh, no," she shook her head. "She's just having bad luck."

My mom didn't look convinced, even with four people against her.

"You're going home, and that's final," she said, her voice daring anyone to defy her. My dad threw his hands up behind her. Kendall flopped back on the pillows. Katie stared at me, surprised.

I ran into our bedroom. I couldn't go home. Not after what I'd just been through. I couldn't leave halfway through the 'fight.' The media would think I was running away. It wasn't fair. My mom didn't even believe anything I'd said, and my dad was a huge pushover.

A few hours later, the door opened. I didn't turn toward the door, but I knew it was Logan. He sat down on my bed.

"Hey," he said. I didn't reply.

"Kendall told us what's going on," Logan said. "I tried to talk them out of it. Carlos and James are still trying."

That made me want to cry. My friends were awesome and my parents were being stupid. What else was new?

Logan rubbed my back. He's not really good at comforting. I guess that's something I do well. But it didn't matter now. I knew I was acting like a brat, but I was done caring. What about all the trouble Logan and his friends had gotten into here? What about the TV show they did live? Why am I the only one in trouble right now? And why wouldn't my mom listen to everyone?

I ended up falling asleep with Logan rubbing my back. It was really weird, but I was upset, and that made me tired. So I did the logical thing and fell asleep.

**Author's Note: Aw, ain't I horrible? Not as horrible as some of the other stories here on FanFiction, but this is pretty bad for this story. Will Mari's parents change their mind? That depends on what kind of mood I'm in next chapter. Oh, and another thing: I just realized I end a lot of my chapters with people falling asleep. That's usually a sign that I don't have a clue what to write there, but I promise, that's not how the stories going to end. Speaking of which, I think it's gonna be somewhere between 20 and 25 chapters, depending on how much I can stretch the storyline. It's not going to go much further. Dang, this is going by fast...**


	17. Chapter 17

**Author's Note: Wow. I think this story's starting to come to a close. Weird. I write these too fast. I guess I should take on two projects. Maybe that'll slow the next one down. Anyway, my sister's freaking out on me because 'Mari better not go home!' I can't make any promises, although I'm giving her a chance...you can all kill me later for that.**

**Disclaimer: No. I'm done with the disclaimer, sitting there at the top of page, mocking me because I don't own Big Time Rush.**

_Logan's POV_

Once I realized Mari had fallen asleep, I got up. I didn't know what to say to her. I felt kind of bad for not saying anything, but most of me was angry at my parents.

How could they take Mari home? That wasn't fair. Mari gets in trouble no matter where she is. Just kidding. But seriously, they couldn't take Mari home for things that other people did. But my mom had made up her mind, and no matter how hard Mari and I had tried, we never changed her mind.

And my dad. What was he doing? Nothing. Like always. My dad likes to let my mom make the decisions, and when he doesn't agree, he tends to go along with them anyway. The only time he'd ever fought for something was when I wanted to go to Hollywood with the others. And even then, he let Mari do most of the fighting.

Carlos and James were still arguing with my mom when I walked out into the living room. Mrs. Knight had joined in. I only listened to a few words before I got angry and left. My mom was accusing Mrs. Knight of being a bad parents because she let Mari and Kendall go to a party. Apparently my mom brings everyone down, not just one person.

I sat down in the lobby. A few minutes after I got there, Camille appeared next to me.

"What's up?" she said into my ear, scaring me.

"Oh, hi, Camille," I said, trying to smile.

"What's wrong?" she repeated.

"My parents are here," I told her.

"Why is that bad?" she asked confused.

"They want to take Mari home," I told her.

"What?" Camille's eyes widened. "They can't!"

"Yeah, well, my mom doesn't seem to realize that," I groaned. "They're taking her home tomorrow."

Camille sighed.

"Great, so Jo moves away, and now Mari's leaving," she kicked at the coffee table. I jumped when it moved.

"Sorry," Camille mumbled. She was staring down at her hands. Suddenly she looked up at me.

"Can we do something?" she asked.

"You could go help Carlos, James, and Mrs. Knight argue with her," I suggested. "You could go talk some sense into my dad. He doesn't agree, but that's not motivating him to do anything. Like always."

"That's it!" Camille's eyes sparkled and she grabbed my arm. My dad was on the elevator when it opened.

"Hey," he said to me. "I had to get away from the yelling. Your mother is very set on this."

He looked kind of nervous. I didn't want to make him fight with Mom, but she was wrong this time. Like I was wrong. And a jerk. But that's not the point right now.

"Hi, I'm Camille," my girlfriend held her hand out to my dad.

"Logan's girlfriend," he smiled. I tried not to turn red. Camille nodded, looking very happy.

"Anyway, I just wanted you to know that I'll really miss Mari," Camille was bringing out the actress in her. I was just focusing on not blowing it. "My best friend just moved away, and she's been helping me," she let out a sob. "Sorry.

Dang, I wish I could act like that.

"Oh," my dad was falling for it! Unbelievable! He actually looked kind of sad.

"I don't know what I'll do without my other best friend," Camille turned toward me and buried her face in my chest, winking at me as she did so. I hugged her, trying to keep my face as straight as possible.

"Oh, man," my dad was feeling the pressure now. He looked nervous.

Camille stomped on my foot. I winced.

"Dad, you can't let Mom take Mari home!" I added, because that was clearly what Camille wanted me to do. "I need her here."

Strangely, I wasn't lying at all. I hadn't realized it, but I really did need Mari here. She's literally my other half. That sounds weird, but she is my twin, after all.

My dad looked upset now. "Son, I don't think I can talk your mom out of this," he told me.

Camille sobbed again, nearly knocking me off balance. She was pressing her face pretty hard into my chest. She was probably trying not to laugh.

"Please, Dad?" I asked, wishing I could cry on command. Camille had once tried to teach me. It had failed. Miserably.

"I'll talk to her," my dad promised, staring at the back of Camille's head.

"Really?" she turned to him, most of her face red from trying not to laugh. I coughed, covering up my laugh. My dad was apparently naïve. Or he really didn't want Mari at home. Either one could be true. I didn't care which, as long as Mari could stay here.

Camille and I followed my dad back to 2J. They were still arguing! Good grief!

"Honey?" my dad said. Carlos and James didn't hear him. Camille whistled loudly and they stopped and stared at her.

"Can I talk to you?" my dad asked my mom. She nodded, looking just a bit confused, and followed him into Mrs. Knight's room.

"Finally," Kendall sighed in relief. "The next person who talks louder than the TV is going out the window, I don't care who it is."

Camille giggled. The TV wasn't on. Obviously Kendall wasn't okay.

"Kendall, the TV's off," Carlos said.

"Exactly," Kendall said. I smirked. Or maybe Kendall knew what he was saying. Mrs. Knight smiled.

About two minutes later, Kendall was out.

"Good night, Kendall," I said, turning on the TV. There was nothing on about anything, not even a certain interview I'd done earlier.

"I'm bored," Carlos announced.

"Of course you are," James said, his irritation still in his voice. He was pacing very quickly. It made me dizzy just to watch him.

"James, there's an apartment beneath us, you can't put a hole in the floor," Mrs. Knight told him. He ignored her.

I turned on Cartoon Network. I had no idea what was on, but it shut Carlos up. I turned away from him and relaxed in the chair.

I didn't blame James for being so angry. Mari shouldn't have to leave because of a few things that happened. Hopefully, my dad was talking her out of that. But who knew?

Camille joined me on the chair. She seemed more worried now than she had been before, but I knew that meant she wasn't acting now.

My parents didn't come out of the bedroom before Mrs. Knight made us go to bed and Camille had to leave. Kendall waved to us as we went into our rooms. Mari was still fast asleep, and looked kind of peaceful. But I knew that I was not getting to sleep tonight.

**Author's Note: Look! Logan didn't fall asleep at the end of the chapter! Yay! In case anyone's wondering, Logan takes after their mom (sort of) and Mari takes after their dad (sort of). Both in looks and sort of in personality. So...yay! I'm not sure why you would be wondering. By the way, I asked my mom what she would do in this situation. So this part of the story is based on what my mom would do. Mostly. If I went out to LA as Big Time Rush's drummer, went to a party where my friend got drunk, and then had the paparazzi say I had four boyfriends, my mom would make me come home. But other than that, I'm just making this up. And if you read all of this note, I love you, and you deserve a cookie, but I don't think it'll fit through the USB port...**


	18. Chapter 18

**Author's Note: I can't sleeeeeeeep! So I decided to write. Oh, hey! I started a collection of one-shots for Big Time Rush. It's called Life's What You Make It because I'm not very creative right now. And Make a Name is coming to end. Only a few more chapters. Dang, I gotta write slower. But then it's on to Going Haywire!**

**Disclaimer: I'm too tired to tell you that I don't own Big Time Rush.**

_Carlos' POV_

I was still angry when I woke up the next morning. Mari's parents couldn't be taking her home today! Mari just got here! We need her! As strange as it sounds, her drumming is way more energetic than any other drummer we've ever had, and it helps us concentrate.

But not only because of that. Mari's also a great friend. I don't care what anyone else thinks, Mari is amazingly supportive, and she always knows the right thing to say. It wasn't fair to her if she went home.

Not to mention how Gustavo was going to react. I loved Mari, but that was not something I was willing to face alone.

Her parents were nowhere to be found when I walked out into the living room. Mari, however, was sitting at the table talking quietly with Logan. Kendall was awake on the couch, looking better than he had in days. He actually smiled at me when I walked out into the living room.

"You look like you feel better," I told him.

"Yeah," Kendall nodded, looking slightly happy. Then he leaned toward me. "But Mari's been crying."

I raised an eyebrow.

"I don't blame her," I said. "I don't want her to go."

"Me, either," Kendall sighed. "What can we do?"

I shrugged. I had no clue.

It was Saturday, and we had the day off from Rocque Records, no matter how much Gustavo wanted us to record. So we basically sat around. Mari put off packing. She didn't want to go. She spent most of the day upside down on the chair, listening to us talk.

Her parents finally came out of Mrs. Knight's bedroom at around noon. Mrs. Mitchell looked conflicted, and Mr. Mitchell looked confident. It was a switch from their usual. And it really confused me.

It was quiet for a few minutes. Mari was deliberately not looking at her parents. Logan was staring at the floor. Apparently he was determined to ignore them, too. Kendall was sitting on the couch, half-asleep. James was typing on a computer. Katie was eating a banana.

What was I doing? I was preparing to throw something if they still said Mari had to leave.

"Mari," their mom cleared her throat. "Can we talk to you and Logan alone?"

Mari stood up slowly. Logan followed suit and they walked away.

I hate not knowing what was going on.

_Mari's POV_

"What?" I demanded when we got into Mrs. Knight's bedroom. I knew it was only a matter of time before Carlos decided he wanted to know what was going on.

"Don't rush us, honey," my dad said.

"Uh, unless you want some very angry singers to interrupt you, I'd advise to hurry up," Logan said.

"Oh," my mom looked at the door. "Well, we talked about the situation. We want you to know that this decision wasn't easy to make."

My heart sank. I was still going back to Minnesota. Logan looked angry again.

"We talked with Kendall's mom, and we thought about what your friends said," my dad said. Logan smirked and I raised an eyebrow at him. He spelled out Camille's name with his hand.

"And we've come to realize that everything that happened really was out of your control," my mom said to me. I was surprised. "We're not saying you're definitely staying here, but we are going to give you a second chance."

"But," my dad said. "You have to email three times a week, and call twice a week."

"I can do that," I was barely holding in my excitement.

"Carlos, I can hear you through the door!" Logan yelled.

"I can't understand what you're saying anyway!" Carlos yelled back and we heard footsteps.

"Both of you email and call, please," my mom looked at Logan, who turned red. He wasn't very good at keeping up with emails and calling.

"Thank you!" I jumped toward my parents and hugged them tightly. My dad laughed. My mom shook her head.

"Don't let anybody tell you who you are, Mari," my mom whispered in my ear. It was something she'd used to tell me all the time. It was a little cliché, perhaps, but I didn't care. I still loved to hear her say that.

"I love you, Mom," I told her.

_Carlos' POV_

Well, that eavesdropping mission had been a epic failure. I hadn't heard anything except Logan yelling at me. So I had no idea what was going on. Kendall's fever spiked again.

"Darn it!" he said, starting to shiver. James jumped when he coughed.

"Paranoid much?" Katie mumbled. I had to smile.

"Hey, Mom, can you get me the medicine?" Kendall asked from the couch. Mrs. Knight carried over a dose while we were still waiting.

"This is annoying!" I announced to the group. No one responded.

Finally, I heard Mrs. Knight's bedroom door open and Logan came out first, looking exhausted. Mari came out next, trying as hard as she could to keep a straight face and failing.

"I'm staying!" she said. Katie cheered and wrapped her arms around her. I raised an eyebrow.

"I would've thought you'd want your room back," Kendall said.

"Are you kidding me?" Katie stared at him. "I finally have a girl close to my age to talk to. And I can drum now, too. Neither of which would be possible without Mari."

"You taught her how to drum?" Mrs. Knight stared at Mari, surprised.

"Yes, and she's really good at it," Mari grinned.

Suddenly, the door flew open and Camille ran in.

"Guys, have you seen this yet?" she asked, holding up a magazine.

"If it's about me, I don't want to hear it," Mari held up her hands and grabbed an apple.

"Even if it's about your brother defending you?" Camille grinned at Logan. Mari nearly choked on the bit of apple she'd just eaten.

"What?" she stared.

"Is that what you were doing yesterday?" James asked Logan. He nodded. Mari grabbed the magazine.

"Hey, wait, listen to this," she stopped at a page. "Kendall Knight's supposed 'first girl' confesses. It's that girl from the party, the one that said you had sex with her! She's admitting that you didn't. She's claiming that she just now remembered what actually happened, and that all she remembered before is going into a room with you. Hey, your name's cleared, Kendall!"

He had moved into a sitting position. Sort of. He had a wide grin on his face. Mrs. Knight looked relieved. Katie shrugged it off.

"And on the next page, it says that Logan went to the magazine editor and demanded that they interview him so he could defend me," Mari grinned at her twin.

"I was trying to make up for being a jerk," he shrugged.

"I'd already forgotten about that," she smiled.

"Aw," I joked.

"Choking on the mushy-gushy crap in here," James pretended to fall to the floor.

"Eh, shut up," Mari and Logan said together.

All the sibling love made me want to go home again, but I pushed it away for the time being. Sure, I loved my family, but these guys were my family, too.

Ugh. Now I had a headache.

"I'm going to bed," Logan announced.

"Are you going to screw up your schedule again?" I grinned at him. He rolled his eyes and nodded.

"Yup," he said, disappearing down the hall.

Okay, so my real family wasn't here. That didn't mean I was alone, right?

**Author's Note: There were some loose ends tied up in this chapter. Hey! Don't forget to vote on the poll! So far only two people have voted, and that's including me! (I did it on accident, but still!)**

**Good night!**


	19. Chapter 19

**Author's Note: So, I decided that I really couldn't stretch it anymore (well, I could, but not without getting completely ridiculous), so here's the last chapter of Make a Name. It's kind of an epilogue. Kind of a regular chapter.**

_Mari's POV_

A little over a week later, Big Time Rush was getting ready to perform. I was back stage tuning my guitar. That's right_, guitar. _You see, Katie decided she wanted a turn playing drums for Big Time Rush. I wasn't going to stop her. Besides, I knew all the guitar parts. And Gustavo gave me a really cool guitar to use!

Kendall had fully recovered. You couldn't even tell he'd been sick. He was smiling and laughing, and he could sing and dance just fine.

Carlos wasn't homesick anymore. Logan and I hadn't brought out Tori (her parents hadn't agreed to that. Yet), but we had been able to set up this performance in Minnesota. All of our families showed up. Except James'. His parents were out of town.

Anyway, back stage was louder than usual. All of our parents were back stage, and all of Carlos' siblings. The boys were warming up, and Carlos' little brother, Joey, was laughing at the weird warm ups they were doing. Katie was stretching. Seriously. Apparently she was worried about her arm.

I started strumming the guitar. I wasn't paying attention to what I was playing until Kendall jumped in with the vocals for 'Till I Forget About You.' Katie laughed at the surprised look on my face. I made a different face at her, but I didn't stop playing. All the boys had caught on now, and they were singing it.

About ten minutes after we finished the song, Kelly and Gustavo told me and Katie to get in our spots. Apparently, I was announcing, too. That would have been nice to know beforehand. At least I didn't have a script to memorize. Gustavo told me to wing it.

Great. I took the microphone that was handed to me and walked to center stage. The crowd started cheering.

"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, people of all ages!" I said and I heard Katie start laughing and Gustavo had his head in his hands. _Hey, it's his fault_, I thought flashing him a quick smile before turning back to the crowd.

"Are you ready for Big Time Rush?" I yelled and the boys ran on stage. Apparently I was holding Kendall's mic, so I gave to him and went to my spot. We started 'Famous.'

I'd never actually played a show for Big Time Rush as the guitarist, and I had a completely different view of the stage. I could actually see them dance. It was so weird. They had so much energy on stage. Way more than in rehearsal. I wanted to know how none of them didn't just die while they were performing.

At one point, the boys decided they wanted to make the concert interesting. So they decided that they were going to try to distract me while keeping with the choreography and staying in the song. They ended one song with their backs to the audience and weren't supposed to turn around until the next song. So they made as many faces as possible in the space of about a minute and half.

Katie seemed to have fun with it. She didn't look like she was in pain. Later, that might change, but oh, well.

The concert ended with a band (literally; Katie had a little bit too much fun) and the boys went to greet fans.

Finally, around eleven o'clock, we convinced Gustavo to let the boys leave and took a limo back to our actual houses, where we were staying (except James; he spent the night at Kendall's house).

I was glad things were back to normal. For the most part, anyway. And I'd like to say that we all lived happily ever after, but that is such a lie, because I don't have a clue what's next around the corner. So I guess the ending of this story goes like this: "And they all lived sort of happily for a few days until Hollywood decided it wanted to rear its ugly head again and ruin it all."

Much better.

**Author's Note: Awww...the last chapter of Make a Name. But definitely not the last of Mari. See, when I make an OC, I used them for every story I make about the show/book/movie.**

**The second...I guess you'd call it 'installment' of the Make a Name series is called Going Haywire. I think I'm gonna wait a few days to start working on, so I can organize my thoughts. But that doesn't mean I'm gonna stop Life's What You Make It. Anyway, thanks for reading!**


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